


Who's the Hero of Your Story?

by DeceitfulHonesty



Series: Who's the Hero Of Your Story? [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Based on a Tumblr Post, Daisy as Quake, F/F, Secret Identity, Supervillain AU, quake - Freeform, superhero au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-01
Updated: 2017-10-02
Packaged: 2018-06-05 15:03:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 31,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6709726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeceitfulHonesty/pseuds/DeceitfulHonesty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jemma gulped and tried to discreetly wipe her sweaty palms on her skirt. She had been preparing for this day for months and here she finally was: sitting face-to-face with the three biggest supervillains in the city. She didn't particularly want to become a supervillain, but grad school was expensive and she really needed to impress her advisors...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Jemma gulped and tried to discreetly wipe her sweaty palms on her skirt. She had been preparing for this day for months and here she finally was: sitting face-to-face with the three biggest supervillains in the city. 

Technically, they were just her doctoral advisement committee currently, but that didn’t make Jemma any less nervous. The rhythmic tapping of Raina’s nails against the conference room table was the only sound in the room as the three department heads perused Jemma’s proposal.

It was common knowledge that these three were behind the all the major crimes committed in the city for the past few years, but the police could never prove it. They rarely managed to gather any solid evidence against them. On the rare occasions that they did, Ian Quinn (who was still on page one of Jemma’s proposal and was frowning at the page in confusion) would hire the most expensive lawyers to get the evidence thrown out. 

Quinn was the least intimidating of the villainous trio. Raina, who was leaning back in her chair casually, could cover her entire body in lethally sharp thorns at will. Of course, no one had ever caught her in the process and her silky, black hair that rested in gentle curls on the shoulders of her floral dress made it hard to believe that she was capable of that. It was also rumored that she could see the future, but that seemed a little far-fetched to Jemma. 

To Raina’s left was John Garrett. He was once a soldier who was caught in an explosion which took an arm, a leg, and about half of his internal organs. Now, he was basically a cyborg. His damaged organs were replaced with experimental mechanical contraptions and his missing limbs, which were currently cheap prosthetics, were substituted for high-tech cybernetic enhancements when he was doing anything illegal. 

And Quinn? He was the money. He stayed in the background of their schemes until they needed public figure to extol the virtues of the two civil servants tirelessly devoting their time to young minds in the sciences. 

After what felt like hours, they finished reading and glanced between themselves before directing their attention to Jemma. 

Raina was the first to speak. “So, your research is intended to genetically alter this—”

“ _Parthenocissus semichordata,_ ” Jemma blurted. “Um, yes.”

“That. Why this plant specifically?” Raina asked, leaning on the table to gaze intently at Jemma. Her tone made it seem like she already knew the answer and was only asking to amuse herself. Jemma gulped again before answer. She had practiced this a thousand times. 

“This particular variety of _parthenocissus_ is already a mutation that allows it to grow at a much faster rate and to a much greater size than any of the species in its genus, while using significantly less energy. Once I can isolate the component that triggers the rapid growth, the plant is essentially programmable,” Jemma said, trying to reign in her excitement and appear professional. 

“Could it be weaponizable?” Garrett asked. 

Jemma furrowed her brow at the question. “Um, it’s a plant. But, once the proper genes are isolated, it could provide a viable substitute for most of the lumber our society uses, as well as enabling the construction of all-natural, biodegradable buildings. With further research and testing of course.”

Garrett seemed indifferent, but the other two looked impressed. 

“Well, I think your research shows a lot of potential,” Raina remarked. “One thing we look for in our doctoral candidates is the willingness to go beyond academic requirements. Things like extracurriculars” she leaned in and dropped her voice conspiratorially. Quinn and Garrett seemed to lean in as well, watching Jemma carefully. “You know, political involvement in the community.”

Jemma blinked a few times and hoped it didn’t betray her confusion. Were they...asking her to join them? As a supervillain? She stayed silent for a few moments before she realized they were waiting for an answer. 

“Oh, um. Well, my skills are more suited to a lab environment, but I’m always willing to take on extra tasks?” 

Jemma hoped that was vague enough. She didn’t particularly want to be a supervillain (nor did she have any ability to give her the ‘super’ label), but she needed access to the lab and funding of this facility and didn’t want to lose her chance. 

The answer seemed to please the trio. Garrett nodded thoughtfully and Raina smiled gently at Jemma. 

“Thank you for your time, Ms. Simmons,” Quinn said. “We’ll be in touch within the week.”

The three villains— who might soon be Jemma’s advisors— stood and shook Jemma’s hand and she was dismissed. She thanked them politely and darted from the room, trying to slow her frantic heartbeat. The stressful part was over now. All she could to do was wait. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

3 months later

 

“Why is it growing spikes?” Fitz asked, poking the plant with with his screwdriver. 

Jemma slapped his hand away and glared at him. “That’s five weeks of twenty-four hour environmental monitoring to ensure proper growth. Be careful with it.” She inspected the product of all her genetic research for damage before addressing his question. It seemed unharmed, but Jemma ran a finger over the skin to make sure there was no bruising. The plant’s thick vines curled around the makeshift trellis Jemma had rigged out of a series of flask stands, appearing remarkably healthy. Jemma couldn’t help but wince at the vicious-looking, curved spikes that had mysteriously sprouted from the base of the vine last week. 

“Honestly, I don’t know. I crossed this one with some genes from an _Ophicordyceps_ variant that I was hoping I could reverse-engineer to control the growth response.”

“Right. Remind me what the Ophi-whatchacallit does again.”

“It’s the ‘zombie fungus’ I was telling you about,” Jemma replied, rolling her eyes. The popular nickname for the organism was, frankly, ridiculous, but it had some interesting features that Jemma was trying to exploit. Since she had hit a dead end with every other attempt to isolate the original plant’s gene, she was grasping at straws with this fungus. Of course, she had to admit, her paper would have much more chance of getting published if it had something ‘sexy’ in the title like ‘zombie fungus.’

At least according to her advisors. It had only been three months since she had been taken on by the part-time supervillains, but they were still pestering her to get results faster, along with dropping subtle offers of ‘extracurricular’ work she could do. 

Jemma shook off the thoughts of her advisors and set back to work, taking samples off another plant variant she hoped might hold the answers. Fitz went back to his own project, rewiring come circuit for his doctoral work. 

They were both a bit miffed, originally, when the university put the engineer and the biochemist in the same lab, but they quickly realized they had more in common than they thought and learned to coexist in the space. Of course, there was a learning curve to get through before things began to flow smoothly; Fitz loved to complain about the time Jemma decided to dissect something on their shared table. 

In the silence of the lab, a barely audible rumble drew their attention from their respective projects. 

“What was—”

Fitz didn’t finish his question before the far wall of the lab was blasted inward, sending pieces of brick and lab equipment flying in all directions. Jemma ducked behind her desk and peered over the edge to see what had caused the destruction. As usual, her curiosity outweighed the instinct for self-preservation. 

Two figures clambered over the rubble. The first knocked a chunk of drywall aside and braced herself, facing the gaping hole in the wall for another attack. As the dust dissipated, Jemma could recognize the figure as Raina, covered in lethally sharp thorns that obscured most of her features. She waited, claws bared and attention fixed on the other figure as they climbed over the rubble. Once the figure straightened up, Jemma knew who had caused the destruction. 

It was Quake, the city’s resident superhero. A mysterious young woman who had the power to generate massive earthquakes and produce shockwaves strong enough to level buildings. Most of the city cheered when Quake entered a fight, but the destruction she could cause was legendary on its own.

Jemma recognized her by mostly her outfit, the black leather combat suit and thick silver gauntlets, which were frequently featured on the news. Her face was never clearly captured, which was probably intentional, as she never wore a mask. She always disappeared after a fight leading the residents to wonder about her identity. 

Quake stood on top of the mountain of rubble, her posture living up to the superhero title. With the dust swirling around her and the wind blowing in from the newly created hole in the wall tussling Quake’s hair, Jemma could understand why comic books depicted women as swooning over the superhero. Even the shallow scratches on her cheeks only enhanced her intense features and made her look both attractive and intimidating. 

Jemma’s attention was pulled away from Quake by Raina grumbling something about ‘expensive to fix.’ 

“Why is that your problem? It’s not like you have a personal investment here, right?” Quake shouted back, sarcastically. 

Raina, or whatever her supervillain persona was called, just sneered. 

Raina quipped something back and lunged at Quake, when Jemma felt a tug on her arm. Fitz gestured towards the nearest door and pulled Jemma towards it. She started to follow, peering over her shoulder to make sure neither super-powered person noticed them there and then froze. 

“My plant!” she hissed. 

Fitz shot her a dumbfounded look. “Leave it! It’s a plant!”

“It’s the culmination of three months of gene-splicing!”

Jemma jerked her hand out of Fitz’s grasp and slunk back to the table her vine was perched on. Quake and Raina were going hand-to-hand, clearly too wrapped up in their fight to notice Jemma. A crash distracted Jemma momentarily from her mission, and she saw Raina go flying over a nearby table, courtesy of a shock wave from Quake. 

Jemma grabbed for the edge of the ceramic pot, carefully avoiding the large spikes near the base, when she smelled gas in the air and spun around. 

Raina held a cut gas line in one hand and a flint lighter in the other.

“Sorry, Quakey,” Raina purred, “but today is not a day that you win.”

She nodded in Jemma’s direction, drawing Quake’s attention. Jemma felt like her heart froze as several things happened at once. 

First, Raina squeezed the lighter, sending a shower of sparks to ignite the gas in the air as she dove out a nearby window. Then, someone (or multiple someones) screamed “NO!” Finally, Jemma felt herself flying backwards, hit with a shockwave rather than the gas explosion, but still getting knocked over the table and into the opposite wall. 

Pain lanced through her the back of Jemma’s head and spine as she crumpled to the ground. Her ears were ringing from the explosion, which silenced any other sounds. Her vision swam, clouded by dust and probably a concussion. She could smell burning from somewhere nearby and part of her brain told her she needed to get up and run, but her body didn’t seem able to obey. 

A hand rolled her over on her side and she tried to focus her eyes on the figure in front of her. The ringing in her ears had lessened just enough that she could hear the person calling her name in a thick Scottish accent. 

Jemma eyes drifted to the scene behind Fitz. There was dust everywhere, mixing with smoke and making the air drifting above black and suffocating. Scattered around the piles of rubble and crushed lab equipment were small fires that engulfed anything flammable. A hand waving in front of her face drew Jemma’s attention back to Fitz. 

“—mma? Jemma, can you hear me? You need to stay awake. An ambulance is on its way. Can you— Jemma, can you hear me?” Fitz shouted. Jemma tried to tell him not to shout, but then she realized fire alarms and sirens were blaring, nearly drowning out his words anyway. 

A coughing figure jogged up behind Fitz. 

“What can I do? I can help—”

“You’ve done enough, thanks,” Fitz snapped, shoving the person away. 

Even in her delirious state, Jemma could identify the short, curly hair and silver gauntlets associated with Quake, as she turned her back a strode from the scene with her shoulders hunched. Jemma wanted to scold Fitz for being rude (she was only trying to help), but she didn’t even have the energy to hold her eyes open anymore and she slid into unconsciousness.


	2. Chapter 2

Jemma woke up, achy and surrounded by the sterile smell of disinfectant. She reluctantly pried her eyes open and peered around. She was propped up on her side in a squishy bed in what appeared to be a hospital room. The bland wallpaper and dry-erase board tacked to the wall that said _Your current nurse’s name is…_ sort of gave that away. 

She tried to roll over onto her back only to be stopped by a hand grabbing her shoulder. 

“Wait! You might not want to do that,” Fitz cautioned, “It might exacerbate your…injuries.”

His eyes flicked up and down Jemma’s body in concern. Jemma glanced over herself, as well, for the first time since waking up. 

She was in a flimsy hospital gown that tied closed at the back. Most of the exposed skin on her arms and legs was covered in gauzy bandages and the places that weren’t were dotted with purpling bruises and small scrapes. She raised a cautious hand to her head to find a thick bandage wrapped around her forehead. 

Jemma groaned. “What happened?”

“After the explosion, you passed out. You’ve got a pretty bad concussion and…uh. Well, it might be easier if the doctor explained the rest,” Fitz replied, reaching over to grab the call button and prod it a few times. 

Jemma narrowed her eyes at him. It wasn’t like Fitz to be so cagey. 

Before she could call him out on his evasiveness, the door cracked open and a middle-aged man in a long white coat slid through it. 

“Ah, Miss Simmons. Good to see you awake,” he greeted. “How’s your head?”

“Fine. What else is wrong, though?” Jemma retorted. She didn’t like not knowing things and Fitz obviously wasn’t going to tell her. 

The doctor’s polite smile fell and he stepped over to the side of Jemma’s bed. “It’s probably easier to show you and then explain it.”

Jemma frowned as he extended a hand to her and guided her to a sitting position on the bed. She rolled her shoulders gently to relieve some of the stiffness, only to feel a strange pull on the skin below her shoulder blades. 

The doctor detached the full length mirror from the conjoined bathroom and propped it up against the wall behind Jemma. 

“What is that for—”

Jemma stopped short as she realized what the doctor was trying to show her. Out of the back of her hospital gown poked her plant—easily recognizable, as she had been working with it daily for three months—stuck to her back. Most of the longer vines had been roughly cut away, leaving a long, jagged stump stretching along the length of her spine. The sharp, curved spikes that had mysteriously sprouted from the plant recently were now jabbing into her skin in places. Her skin around the plant was red and angry and scabbed over in some places. 

The shock of seeing a plant stuck to her back distracted Jemma from the doctor talking. 

“—need to run more tests before we can work on removing it—”

“Wait, why can’t you remove it?” Jemma asked. 

The doctor nervously glanced between Jemma and Fitz before repeating what he had apparently already said. “The impact seems to have caused the spikes to puncture along your spine. In the short time it took to get from the site to the Emergency Room, the plant had grown so the spikes wrapped around your spinal cord. We opted to wait until we could get some more detailed scans of the area, before attempting to surgically remove the remnants to minimize any risk of paralysis—” 

The doctor continued to talk, but Jemma tuned him out. She cautiously peered back into the mirror to inspect the area again. She poked gently at one of the small vines sticking out of the trunk and was startled when it jerked back from her touch. 

“Jemma?” Fitz called gently, “Are you alright?”

Jemma turned back towards Fitz and the doctor, who were both eyeing her like she was a glass precariously balanced on a table and about to fall. Despite the internal panicking, Jemma pulled a brave face. 

“I’m fine. Doctor, what do I need to do now?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Jemma, will you just sit down? You just got out of the hospital yesterday,” Fitz scolded. 

“I can’t! All my research is now gone, so I have to start entirely from scratch, and my advisors are expecting some progress by the end of the month,” Jemma snapped, scrambling around the makeshift lab. Since their usual lab was still smoldering, all the doctoral candidates were moved into a much smaller and lower-tech lab in another building. 

Rather than have to fight with every one else for lab space and supplies during the day, Jemma and Fitz decided to meet late at night to work. Much to Fitz’s dismay, since he believed Jemma should be lying around 'healing.'

“I think they’ll cut you a break, given the accident. Nearly all the doctoral research in that lab was demolished,” Fitz reasoned. 

“Yes, but I need to impress my advisors more than the rest of them, so I can get funding for my next doctorate,” Jemma replied, “These degrees aren’t cheap, you know, and a good word from any of my advisors could open the door to whole new areas of scholarships.”

Jemma reached up to root around through one of the upper cabinets to find a suitable beaker to mix up her fertilizer solution in. 

“Should your…growth be doing that?” 

Jemma jerked down the back of her shirt when she noticed Fitz gawking and glared at him. Unfortunately, the loose-fitting clothes she had to wear to avoid attracting attention to the plant stuck to her spine also had a habit of riding up. 

“I’m surprised it’s still growing as well,” Jemma mumbled. “After the doctor pared it down so much, I assumed it would either die or stay the way they left it.”

Neither of those things seemed to be happening with the weird hybrid plant. In the few days that Jemma was being monitored at the hospital, the plant started to mold more closely along Jemma’s back, until it was nearly flat. In addition, small, leafy vines had started to pop out of the base and creep along Jemma’s back.

Once she realized it was still growing, it just seemed…wrong to cut it. Luckily, Fitz hadn’t seen the thick branches that were now circling Jemma’s arms or he would definitely freak out. 

“Honestly, I’m not concerned,” Jemma continued, “As soon as the scans come back from the hospital, I can get it removed and then it won’t be a problem anymore—”

“Uh, Simmons?”

“--And I really can’t let this put me back anymore. The few days I was stuck in the hospital were bad enough without the explosion destroying all my work--”

“Simmons--”

Jemma reached for a flask she had set down on the end of the table, while absently mixing two other chemicals and waving her free hand in the air as she spoke. 

“--I mean, really. Why on earth did that destructive superhero-slash-vigilante have to break through the wall in _our_ lab? It’s completely--”

“ _Jemma_!”

“What?” she snapped. 

“What the hell is that?” Fitz pointed a shaky finger towards the end of the table, where a thick vine had slithered out of Jemma’s sleeve, coiled around the flask she needed, and was now holding it inches from her hand. 

Jemma jumped backwards, dropping the two beakers in her hand and causing the one wrapped up by the vine to slip to the floor and shatter. Both she and Fitz froze, unsure of what just happened or how to explain in. The vine snaked its way back up Jemma’s sleeve and she could feel it curl around her arm and stop moving. 

“I...I--”

Fitz held up his hands in a placating gesture. “Jemma, don’t freak out. We can--”

“I did it! I unlocked the potential for rapid growth and manipulation of this _parthenocissus_ species! I--” Jemma’s face broke into a giant grin. 

“I don’t that’s the part of this situation we should be focusing on,” Fitz cautioned. He nodded towards the shards of glass littering the floor. “You controlled it. You stuck out your hand to grab the flask and the plant grabbed it for you.”

Jemma furrowed her brows and stared at him in confusion. “That’s exactly what I was trying to accomplish: consciously manipulated growth.  But how is that possible?”

Fitz shrugged. “It probably has something to do with the fact that it’s lodged in your spine. There’s likely some electric impulses going to your limbs that are being interfered by the spikes and traveling through the vines.”

Jemma knew she should be worried, given the grave tone of Fitz’s voice, but the scientific implications of this were indescribable! Fitz continued to lecture about the dangers of a foreign object accessing nerve impulses, but Jemma’s attention was fixed on the plastic water bottle across the table, just out of arm’s reach. 

She rolled up the sleeves of her shirt to her elbows, exposing the light green vines that were coiled around both wrists. She slowly stretched out an arm and tried to focus on reaching out towards the water bottle without moving her arms. Slowly, jerkily, the thin branch on her outstretched wrist uncurled, slithered down her hand and crept towards the bottle. It stretched out to its maximum length and Jemma could feel a twinge in her lower back as the vine grew to close the remaining inches between itself and the water bottle. 

Once the end of it prodded the bottle, Jemma scrunched her forehead in concentration to get the vine to wrap around it. After a few failed attempts, Jemma finally got a decent grip on the bottle and pulled the vine back until the water bottle nudged against her waiting hand. 

“Did you see that, Fitz?” Jemma asked excitedly. 

“Yes, but did you not hear a word of what I said? You shouldn’t be doing that! Who knows what it could be doing to you,” Fitz scolded. 

Jemma glared. “Do you not realize how amazing this is?”

“It really is amazing,” another voice cut in.

Jemma whipped around to find Raina in the doorway, smirking at the pair of them and leaning against the doorframe casually. All the vines that had been creeping around Jemma’s hips and shoulders snapped into tight spirals and nestled tightly against her back. 

“Raina, what...um, what are you doing here so late?” Jemma stuttered. 

“A little bird told me you would be working tonight. I wanted to come see how you were healing after that...unfortunate accident caused by our resident vigilante,” Raina said, pulling a convincing, but clearly fake sympathetic expression. 

 _Oh please,_ Jemma thought, _everyone in this room knows you caused the explosion._  

“Oh, well I’m doing fine, thank you,” she hastily replied. 

Raina strolled into the room. Jemma and Fitz held their breath, so the only sound echoing through the lab was the slow click of Raina’s heels on the linoleum. “I see you’ve been making some progress with your research as well.”

It wasn’t phrased as a question, but Jemma still felt the need to answer. “Oh, um. Not really. Actually, we just realized that there might still be an opportunity to, um, take some samples from my previous attempts and--”

Jemma trailed off as Raina leveled her with a disbelieving stare. 

“Anyway,” Raina continued, “I shouldn’t have to remind you how much we value our privacy at this institute. Any research developments stay strictly confidential until the department heads have approved it for publication. That shouldn’t be a problem, should it?” Raina asked innocently. 

“Um, no?” Jemma mumbled.

Raina’s pointed gaze turned to Fitz. She didn’t say a word until Fitz mumbled out a similar agreement and shifted to stare at the floor, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. 

“Perfect.” Her lips split into a wolfish grin. “Now, Miss Simmons. Do you remember those extracurriculars we spoke about?”

Jemma nodded. 

“Good. I believe we may have an assignment for you. I’ll send some information up in the morning. Take tomorrow off from research, you’ve made excellent progress.” 

With that, Raina turned on her heel and strode from the room. 

Jemma and Fitz were left in stunned silence following the interaction. Fitz finally cleared his throat and spoke up. 

“Um, what kind of extracurriculars is she talking about?”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I constantly want to work on this story and then I sit down to finally do it and it's like pulling teeth! Uuuuuuuuggggghhhh #writingishard   
> Hope you like it cuz it's being a real pain in my butt to pry this story out of my brain. Hopefully, the next few will come easier because there will be much less exposition.


	3. Chapter 3

Jemma didn’t have to wait too long to find out what 'extracurriculars' Raina had been alluding to. Only a few hours, in fact. Far too early in the morning to be having visitors, in Jemma’s opinion, she was jolted awake by an insistent knocking at the front door. Apparently, her plant agreed about the inappropriateness of the visitor’s timing, if the vines curled stubbornly around her headboard were any indication.

After extracting herself from the comfort of her bed, Jemma shuffled to the door of her apartment to silence the infernal knocking. Once she made sure all stray vines were tucked away, she cracked the door open and was greeted by a rather frazzled-looking intern. Jemma didn’t have time to even form a greeting before the intern shoved a sealed manila envelope into her hands and scuttled away down the hall. 

Jemma frowned and popped the seal on the envelope, perused the contents, snatched a long coat off the coat tree to cover her back, and then darted down the hall to Fitz’s apartment.

Typically, Fitz slept like a rock, but Jemma figured that her frantic pounding on his door could even wake the dead. Finally, what felt like ages later, a grumpy and bleary-eyed Fitz opened the door with a frown. 

“Jemma, wha—”

“I think my advisors want me to kill my doctor,” Jemma hissed. 

That woke him up. 

Fitz blinked at her, all traces of sleep disappearing from his eyes and being replaced by confusion and horror. He shushed her and waved her inside, peering down either end of the hall to ensure no one was listening in, and then bolted the door behind him. 

“What are you talking about Jemma? Why would they want you to kill him?” Fitz wondered. 

Jemma stuffed the contents of the envelope into his hands. “Look at this. Schedules, pictures, lunch break habits. Not only of the doctor who treated me after the accident, but of all the nurses and staff who were on duty that night.”

“Okay? But why—”

“All compiled alongside a waiver I signed when I got into the program emphasizing how much they value confidentiality,” Jemma finished. 

Fitz just blinked at her. “It’s not like you talked about your research with the doctor while you were in the hospital. Why are they so concerned?”

“Because the doctor knows about this.” Jemma gestured to the plant on her back and one of the smaller vines slithered up her shoulder as if to illustrate her point. She tried not to be offended at the way Fitz flinch back when he saw it. “Aside from you, me, and Raina, only the hospital staff knows about this. If I— oh, no.”

“What? What’s wrong?” Fitz asked. 

“They want me to be a supervillain. That’s why they want the doctor gone, so when a new villain shows up in the news with vine-based powers, the doctor can’t spill that he knows who it is!” Jemma clapped her hands over her face and started pacing. “What am I supposed to do?”

Fitz was quiet for a moment before her responded. “We go to the police.”

Jemma blanched and spun to face him. “We what?”

“This should be enough evidence to finally stop them,” he replied, brandishing the folder full of papers. “They practically signed it with their intentions. Actually, Raina did sign it. There’s a little note that says ' _good luck. We look forward to hearing about your progress.'_ Everybody knows that Raina, Garret, and Quinn are behind most of the crime in this city. This could be enough to arrest them!”

Fitz started towards the door, but Jemma jumped in front of him. “No. No no no no. Absolutely not. If this gets into the police’s hands, my advisors know exactly who gave it to them. They’ll kick me out of the program, or worse have me blacklisted from every graduate program in the country!” Jemma protested. 

“Jemma, they’re not just your advisors, they’re also the biggest supervillains in the state, maybe even the country. It’s not just your academic career at stake,” Fitz reasoned. 

He stepped around Jemma, moving towards the door again. But Jemma was not going to throw away her chance for a doctorate on the off chance that this folder could be enough evidence to arrest the crime trio. 

“Fitz, you will _not_ turn my advisors in to the police!” Jemma demanded. 

Before she could fully form the idea, one of the larger vines uncoiled from her back and snapped out towards Fitz, latching onto his wrist. Surprisingly, he didn’t flinch away from the touch. He dropped his hand from the door handle and froze. 

“I will not turn your advisors in to the police,” Fitz droned, sounding almost robotic. 

Jemma almost sighed in relief, but realized something was off. “Fitz, are you—”

When she spun him around, his eyes were blank and unblinking. 

“Fitz, what— What’s wrong?” 

Fitz continued to stare straight ahead. 

“Snap out of it, Fitz!” Jemma cried, shaking his shoulders roughly. When he still was unresponsive, Jemma darted towards the kitchen to grab some cold water to splash on his face. Or she would have, if she hadn’t been jerked to a stop by the vine still latched around Fitz’s wrist. She yanked hard to detach it. 

As soon as the vine came off his arm, Fitz gasped in a breath like he had been submerged in water and stumbled backwards. 

“What,” he panted, “the _hell._ Was that?” 

He held up his arm to inspect it. The area that the vine had coiled around was covered in tiny, red pinpricks. 

Jemma glanced at the stray vine as it coiled back up and saw the underside of it was dotted with short, needle-like projections that seemed to match up to the pricks on Fitz’s arm. “I-I don’t know. Suddenly, you just froze up. What do you remember?” 

Fitz paused to catch his breath for a few moment. “I was walking towards the door. Then, as soon as that thing touched me, I couldn’t move anymore. I was still…conscious I guess, but I couldn’t even make my limbs move.”

“Fascinating.”

Fitz glared at her. “Yes, absolutely fascinating. You managed to mind-control me with your freaky plant thing,” he snapped sarcastically. 

“It must be because of the genes from the  _Ophicordyceps_ fungus that I spliced into the plant,” Jemma muttered to herself, ignoring Fitz’s indignation.  “Remember? The 'zombie fungus that can control insects? Somehow the genes I transferred must have contained the ability to—”

“While that’s all very interesting,” Fitz interrupted, “Am I going to start growing mushrooms or something?”

“I highly doubt it. The fungus controls its victims through spores, so at the very most, you might have some spores in your blood. Almost definitely harmless, though you should at least put some antiseptic on that.” Jemma gestured to his arm. Another moment and the rest of the solution to her problem pieced itself together in her mind. “Fitz, can I try something on you?”

“Does it involve getting mind controlled again?”

“…Sort of.”

“No. I didn’t sign up to be a lab rat for a reason,” Fitz grumbled, marching toward the kitchen.

“Fitz, please,” Jemma begged, “I’m not sure if this will work and I don’t want to try it on anyone else in case it doesn’t. If it does work, it could ensure that I don’t have to hurt anyone, but can still get my advisors off my back.”

Fitz grumbled to himself and started making himself a cup of tea with his back to Jemma. Jemma didn’t speak for a moment, letting Fitz consider his options. After a few long minutes, he groaned and faced Jemma. 

“Fine, what exactly did you want to try?”

Jemma tried not to look too excited (Fitz once told her she looked a bit 'manic' when she was really anticipating an experiment and she thought that might put him off a bit). 

“I want to try altering your memories,” she started, “The variant that I spliced genes from controls insects by making them forget what they _actually_ need to do and making them think they need to do what the plant wants.”

“So?”

“So, if I can alter specific memories of individuals…”

“—then you can make the hospital staff forget you were ever there without harming them,” Fitz finished. 

“Exactly! Now, what is something relatively insignificant that you would like to forget?”


	4. Chapter 4

_Experiment 616a: Memory Erasure._

_Subject: F_

_Procedure: F positioned comfortably and asked to select innocuous memory to be forgotten. First selected memories deemed critical to personal development and excluded from experiment. Finally selected memory of video a colleague sent to the subject last week of a monkey riding the back of a pig (furthermore, noted as The Memory)._

_Attached the vine that appears to have the capability to inject the_ Ophicordyceps _spores_ _to F’s arm, as was done in the accidental trial previously. Prompted F to forget The Memory. Waited 30 seconds and detached the vine from F’s arm. Subject immediately lost consciousness, but appears to be in stable condition._

_Subject has remained unconscious for…._

Jemma paused her writing and glanced between the clock on the wall and Fitz, still slumped over on the kitchen counter, snoring softly. 

_15 minutes. Vitals show normal readings. Will collect blood and skin samples as soon as subject regains consciousness. Further trials to be run._

Jemma folded up her hand-written lab report and tucked it in a folder to stash somewhere hidden. She didn’t necessarily need to write a lab report for her impromptu experiment, but, as a scientist, she liked to have a written record of any tests she did. 

Jemma waited silently. About 45 minutes after losing consciousness, Fitz finally shifted in his sleep and groaned. Jemma let out a sigh of relief and jogged over to check his vitals again. 

“How are you feeling, Fitz? Any nausea or muscle aches?” she prodded, pushing Fitz’s eyelids open to check his pupils. 

Fitz pushed her hands away with a grumble. “I’m fine. My head’s killing me, but otherwise, I’m fine.”

“Do you remember the video that Trip sent you last week?”

Fitz blinked in confusion. “Trip sent me a video? What was it?”

Jemma’s face broke into a wide grin. “It worked.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You remember the plan, right?” Fitz asked. 

Jemma rolled her eye. “Of course I remember the plan.”

“And you have the—” 

“Yes, Fitz! I have everything. Although, I still think the amount of gadgets you packed for me is a bit excessive for what I’m doing,” Jemma protested. 

“You’ve got to be prepared for every scenario,” Fitz said. “I’m just giving you some back up plans.”

“I appreciate that, but I don’t think they’ll be necessary. Raina, Garrett, and Quinn have done most of my work for me,” Jemma said, throwing the small backpack Fitz loaded up with gadgets over her shoulder.

Fitz looked like he wanted to say something else, but he clamped his mouth shut and nodded. Jemma powered on the small communicator plugged into her ear, pulled her baseball cap low over her eyes, and marched towards the door. 

“Just…Be careful, Jemma,” Fitz cautioned. 

She gave him a small, nervous smile. “I will.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The walk from the metro station was uneventful, but Jemma was pretty sure a naked mariachi band could have been playing right in front of her and should wouldn’t have noticed. 

She and Fitz had planned out every possible scenario for her mission at the hospital, but she was still nervous. Fitz hadn’t let her tests her memory altering ability more than twice, so she wasn’t completely sure this would even work. Jemma was even less sure that she would get out without being caught. 

Still, this had to be done. All too soon, she was standing in the lobby of the hospital. It was late at night, so there wasn’t much activity, other than the doctors and nurses shuffling between rooms, clutching their coffees. 

Jemma slipped past the empty receptionist desk and ducked down the hallway that Raina’s file indicated would lead to Doctor Adams’ office. She tugged the baseball cap lower over her eyes as she reached a corner with a security camera. Once passed the reach of the camera, she reached the elevators and prodded the up button, anxiously shifting her weight while she waited. 

A crackle of static in her ear made her lurch.

“—mma? Jemma, can you hear me?” Fitz’s voice hissed through the device. 

Jemma’s eyes darted around to make sure no one was nearby to hear her before whispering, “Yes, I can hear you.”

“How is everything going? Have you found the doctor yet?” 

“Fitz, I just got here. I haven’t even gotten in the—”

The sound of footsteps coming towards her made Jemma freeze. A rather exhausted looking nurse shuffled up beside Jemma. 

“Elevator! It’s just taking forever isn’t it?” Jemma announced to the nurse, probably louder than she needed to, and followed the statement with an exaggerated laugh. The nurse just raised an eyebrow at her and went back to staring at the elevator doors. 

“Jemma? What are you talking about? Is there someone the—”

Jemma groaned as Fitz continued talking. The elevator finally dinged its arrival and Jemma scurried inside, followed by the nurse.

The awkward silence within the elevator was bad enough, but Jemma also had to deal with the constant barrage of questions she was still getting from Fitz that she couldn’t answer. 

She tried turning off the device, but she couldn’t find the switch. Then she tried muttering her responses under her breath, which Fitz kept talking over. Jemma noticed the nurse kept shooting Jemma increasingly concerned glances. 

“Jemma? Answer me! Is everything okay? I knew this was a bad idea. Have they called security? Are you getting arrest—”

“Fitz, shut up!” Jemma shouted.

Her voice echoed through the silent elevator. The chatter in her ear finally stopped, leaving only the sound of the elevator beeping as it passed a floor. The nurse beside Jemma took a large step backwards. 

“Um, miss? Are you alright?” the nurse asked. 

Jemma grumbled a curse at Fitz and grabbed the nurse’s wrist. 

“Forget you ever saw me,” Jemma commanded. 

The nurse’s face shifted from confused to terrified. “O-okay, just let me go.”

Jemma frowned. That wasn’t the right response. “Oh! Wait…”

She furrowed her brow and concentrated on moving the vine coiled around her wrist. It snapped out and coiled around the nurse’s wrist, right beside Jemma’s hand. Once the nurse’s face slid into the blank stare Jemma was growing familiar with, she repeated the command and pulled the vine back until it curled up under her sleeve again. 

The nurse slumped against Jemma and she stumbled to hold up the other woman’s weight. 

“Um…Jemma?” Fitz tentatively asked through the comms. 

“Fitz, I can’t respond to you in public. I look like a crazy person!” She adjusted the unconscious woman on her shoulder. “I’ll let you know if something’s going wrong.”

The elevator’s ding announced they had finally reached Jemma’s floor. The doors slid open to a cluster of nurses chatting amicably until their eyes landed on the nurse Jemma was currently holding up. 

“Uh…She must be very tired. She just fell asleep on me,” Jemma tried. 

The nurses relaxed and collectively rolled their eyes. They stepped into the elevator to prop up the other nurse between themselves. Jemma heard one mutter, “third time this month.” She took the distraction as an opportunity to slip down the hall. 

Jemma kept her eyes low, only looking up to check the room numbers as she passed. She finally reached the office that Raina’s file had denoted as Doctor Adams’. The door was open and when she peeked inside, the doctor was hunched over his desk, filling out some forms. 

She took a deep breath and knocked on the doorframe. The doctor looked up from his paper and frowned in confusion. 

“Oh, hello. Can I help you?” 

“I hope so,” Jemma replied, pushing the door closed behind her as she slipped into the room. _Just do it quickly,_ she thought to herself. 

Jemma shuffled across the room towards the doctor, who looked increasingly concerned with every step she took. She reached the desk and leaned over it, placing her hands flat on the surface. 

“It’s about one of your recent patients,” Jemma said. She concentrated on slowing uncurling the vine from her sleeve and watched it creep along the desk towards the doctor’s arms. 

“I’m sorry, but I can’t discuss patients without a— wait, I know you. You’re the girl who was in the lab accident,” Doctor Adams replied. 

“Yes, that’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about.” Jemma flicked her eyes down to the vine which was now hovering over Doctor Adams’ wrist where his white coat sleeves had ridden up. Jemma snapped the vine down and waited until the blank look settled over his features to continue. 

“I need you to get me access to the patient database.”

Jemma peered over the doctor’s shoulder while he unblinkingly logged into the database on his desktop. Jemma dug through her bag once the doctor stopped typing and pulled out the flash drive Fitz had prepared for her for this purpose. Once plugged in, the program he designed sorted through the database and deleted any traces that her file even existed. After that, it hacked into the security camera feed and deleted any frame that Jemma appeared in. 

“One more thing,” Jemma said to Doctor Adams after everything was deleted. “I need the hard copy of my file.” 

She stood with the doctor as he shuffled over to the large file cabinet in the corner of the office, careful not to dislodge the vine. He sorted through the folders until he found the one with Jemma’s name on it, pulled it out, and held it wordlessly out in from of himself. 

Jemma snatched the file and stuffed it in her bag. “Now, Doctor Adams. You’re going to go sit down at your desk, forget I was here or that I even exist, and take a long, well-deserved nap.” 

The doctor said nothing in reply, but Jemma was confident that he understood and would listen. Sure enough, he shuffled over to his cushy chair, flopped into it, and laid his head down on his desk. Jemma made sure he was comfortably position and then she yanked the vine off his wrist. The doctor’s shoulders slumped and his arms went limp. 

A wave of dizziness swept over her as soon as the vine left the doctor’s skin and she had to steady herself on the desk. That had never happened before. She took a few deep breaths to attempt to quell the sudden exhaustion. Her arms trembled. Once the room stopped spinning, she pushed herself upright and tried to walk steadily out of the office. 

She pulled the office door open and came face to face with a short, bald man with his fist raised to knock on the door. They both lurched in surprise. 

“Sorry to interrupt. I was looking for Doctor Adams,” the man (J. Sitwell, according to his name tag) said. 

“Oh! Uh…um.” Jemma slid the door closed to block Sitwell’s view into the office and hazarded a glance towards the unconscious form of the doctor. “He’s…really not feeling well at the moment. He had a long night and needs to rest for awhile.”

“I’m sure he won’t mind a quick chat,” Sitwell insisted, trying to push past Jemma into the office. 

“Really, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Jemma firmly held the door closed. 

Sitwell frowned in irritation. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you around. Do you even have authorization to be on this floor?”

Jemma was sure her face gave her away, but Sitwell just stared her down. 

“I—Of course! It’s just right here in my bag,” Jemma lied. She slid the backpack off her shoulder and started rooting through it, hoping that something Fitz packed would save her. “Fitz, he’s onto me,” she whispered. 

“What was that?” Sitwell demanded. 

“The ICER, Jemma! Use the ICER,” Fitz’s voice crackled into her ear. As soon as he said it, Jemma’s hand landed on the handgun-shaped tranquilizer that Fitz had been working on. It was untested, unfortunately, but it seemed to be her only option. 

“That’s it, I’m calling security,” Sitwell grumbled. He reached for his pocket just as Jemma whipped out the ICER and fired it at his chest. As he started to fall forward, Jemma shot out vines to wrap around his arms and drag him into the office before he could hit the ground. 

“Jemma? Jemma, what’s happening?” Fitz called over the comms. 

“I just shot someone in the chest,” Jemma huffed, hauling Sitwell’s deadweight into the nearest chair. It proved even more difficult in her already exhausted state. 

Thankfully, the vines seemed to be stronger than her arms, but Sitwell was still heavy. It took some maneuvering to get Sitwell propped up in a chair across from Doctor’s Adams’ desk, but Jemma finally managed it. Sitwell’s head lolled backwards and his limbs splayed in all directions. 

“I hope this works,” Jemma grumbled to herself. She focused on the mind control vine and wrapped it around Sitwell’s forehead. The vine barely made contact this time with another wave of dizziness hit Jemma. She pushed open Sitwell’s eyelids and stared into his glazed eyes. “You’re going to forget everything that happened before you knocked on the door.”

She released him and he slumped back into the same position he was in before. Jemma gulped. If the mind control didn’t work because he was already unconscious, this entire operation was wasted. Now, she just had to wait until he woke up to see what would happen. 

Jemma threw the backpack straps over her shoulders again and silently slipped out of the office, closed the door behind her, and headed for the hospital exit. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow look what I finally finished! Sorry I've been MIA for awhile, but I got a new job! (that's not why I've been MIA, I've just been unmotivated) But here it is! We're getting close to Daisy coming back now, so stay tuned! There's just a lot of exposition and build up to trudge through first.


	5. Chapter 5

Jemma perched on the fire escape outside her window as the sun peeked over the roofs of the buildings. A bowl of cereal was balanced on her knees as she scrolled on her laptop through various news sites for any mentions of the hospital downtown she had been at the night before. So far, there was nothing, just as Jemma hoped there would be.

She peered around to make sure no one was watching and then let all the vines on her back relax. She stretched them out to their fullest length (which was only a few feet now that Jemma realized that she could retract the vines as well as grow them) and closed her eyes to soak up the sun. 

The vine part of Jemma was now starting to feel more like an extra set of limbs. They were gradually getting easier to control and with less effort, as well as making themselves quite comfortable on Jemma’s back. She had to be careful when she wore anything with short sleeves now, because stray vines liked to curl down her arms when she wasn’t consciously holding them back. 

Jemma started to feel more energized as the sun warmed her face (and her vines). She tried not to be concerned that she had spent more time in the sun in the last few weeks than she had in many years. Surely, it was just a coincidence and had nothing to do with the photosynthesizing attachments on her spine. 

A gentle knock on the front door dragged Jemma from her relaxation. 

“It’s me,” Fitz greeted. 

“It’s open. I’m outside,” Jemma called back, reluctant to leave her warm perch just yet. The door creaked open, followed by footsteps coming towards the open window. 

“Since when are you so sun-kissed?” Fitz asked, leaning out the window. 

Jemma shrugged. “Sometimes it’s just nice to sit out here. The view really is beautiful in the morning.”

“Aren’t you worried that you’re turning into a plant?” 

“No.” Even though she was a little. 

“Sure. Care to explain the seven bags of kale on the counter?” Fitz asked pointedly. 

Jemma frowned. “I had a craving for a salad. What is there to explain?”

Fitz looked unconvinced. He held out a plain manila envelope to Jemma. “This was on your doorstep, by the way.”

Jemma snatched it, popped the seal open, and slid out the papers inside. The first few pages were screenshots of emails (which Jemma didn’t want to know how her advisors had access to) between Doctor Adams and the hospital manager in which Doctor Adams advised that there may be some sort of virus in the hospital that causes narcolepsy and amnesia. 

The page after was an email that Raina wrote to a private donator recommending Jemma’s research for a significant scholarship. 

The final sheet was a handwritten note requesting a meeting between Jemma and her advisement committee to discuss “a few different directions she could apply her research. 

Jemma gulped and reread the letter a few times before looking back at Fitz. 

“It looks like they have another job for me.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The door slammed shut inches from Jemma’s nose before she could ask any more questions. The meeting with her advisors had gone…well, she supposed. She was never quite sure what they were asking her to do. All of them, especially Raina, spoke in thin metaphors and vague suggestions. 

Thankfully, the envelope full of information they compiled was more than clear. This time, they wanted her to fully become a villain and rob a bank. How stereotypical. They laid out the schematics of the building, including the rotation and routes of the guards. 

Jemma flipped through the packet of information so many times she practically memorized it. Fitz came over after not seeing Jemma in the lab all day and watched her pore over the materials for a few more hours, even though she hid it from him (“I just don’t want you to be considered an accomplice if it doesn’t go well”).

After a few days, Jemma’s window arrived: the head of security was retiring and having a retirement party off-site at 9. All of the guards of the bank were invited, with just a few assigned to stay behind. According to Raina’s notes, they were likely to be bitter about drawing the short straw and would spend most of the night griping to each other about it. 

Jemma spent the days leading up to the heist planning and fretting. Fitz watered her new experimental plant when he went down to the lab and promised to update her on any progress it might be making in her absence. Jemma researched prison times for grand larceny and wondered how valuable this Master’s degree really was. 

A hour before she was scheduled to be on the bus (which she would get off three stops before the bank and walk the backstreets the rest of the way), Fitz gently tapped on her door.

Jemma knew he would let himself in and stayed in her bedroom, staring forlornly at her closet. 

“What does one wear to a bank robbery, Fitz?” she asked, when she heard Fitz shuffle into the doorway. 

“Either a ski mask or spandex unitard. Depending on what persona you’re going for,” he deadpanned. “I brought some things that might help.”

He tossed a bag onto Jemma’s bed. At her bewildered look, he shrugged. “As much as I disapprove of your new supervilliany, I still think you should do it right.”

Jemma tore through the bag’s contents. Inside was an entire outfit composed of various shades of green. She pulled out the long-sleeved shirt and noticed the snaps up the back, to allow her vines to poke out. The pants were stretchy and covered in pockets for whatever kind of gadgets she might be carrying. Also in the bag were heavy duty combat boots and a cluster of other small things. 

Fitz reached into the bottom and pulled out one of the items. 

“Can’t forget the most important part,” he said, brandishing a small green mask to cover around Jemma’s eyes. “Also, I know all American villains are British, but you may want to drop the accent, or it’ll be really easy to figure out which of the two Brits in this city decided to pick up a new night job.”

Jemma stared in disbelief. Then, she threw her arms around Fitz’s neck in a tight hug. 

“Alright, alright. Go get ready. And don’t forget your earpiece,” Fitz said.

“About that,” Jemma muttered stepping back from him, “This mission is much riskier and has much higher consequences than the hospital job. If something goes wrong I don’t want you to be implicated in any way and if I get caught wearing an earpiece, they’ll know someone was helping me.”

“But—”

“I’m not bringing you down too if something happens. Just pretend you don’t know anything about this.”

Fitz scanned Jemma’s face and seemed to realize that she wasn’t going to change her mind and his shoulders sagged. “Fine, but you have to wake me up when you get home so I know you’re okay.”

“Deal. And thank you.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

All too soon, Jemma was geared up and at the bank. She had already memorized the blueprints of the building, so once she fried the lock on the back door (thanks to one of Fitz’s gadgets she packed in a small backpack) she only had to make two lefts and a right, take twelve small steps, and then drill straight down to land in the vault (which would also be accomplished by a gadget courtesy of Fitz). 

There was one guard who was not where he was supposed to be, but Jemma sent him on his way with a quick dose of _Ophicordyceps_ and a “You saw nothing” command. She took the last of her turns, counted out her steps,  carefully pried up the tiles surrounding the area she would be cutting into (so she could replace them and not leave any marks) and pulled out the Mouse Hole. 

Fitz was especially proud of this little gadget. It was a concentrated beam of plasma laser that could cut through virtually any material in seconds. He had yet to submit it to any kind of review, so no one would know the origin of the marks it left. 

Jemma flicked it on and cut a hole in the floor just large enough for herself to slip through and drop into the vault. She winced as the piece of floor that she carved out smacked into the floor of the vault before she could snatch it. Her eyes darted around the hallway to ensure the sound hadn’t alerted anyone. She sighed in relief when no one came barreling around the corner and lowered herself through the hole. 

In retrospect, she probably should have thought this part through a bit better. With the tips of her fingers tightly gripping the edge of the gap in the floor, she was still dangling too many feet away from the ground to ensure a comfortable landing. 

Oh yeah, vines. She slipped a couple of her vines up through the hole and planted them against the floor. 

Unfortunately, there wasn’t a lot for them to grip onto on the slick tile floor above and, as soon as Jemma unwrapped her fingers from the ledge, the vines slipped right off and she landed flat on her butt on the cold floor of the vault. 

Jemma grumbled and rubbed her tailbone as she stood up. That was something she’d have to work on for the next time. Wait, next time? Nevermind, she had other things to deal with right now. 

This is the part that got tricky. Raina’s notes said that even they couldn’t find the lockbox number for Jemma’s target because the vault was full of decoy boxes to slow down burglars. Nevertheless, Jemma had to find it. 

Making use of another of Fitz’s inventions, she started on the left and began systematically unlocking and search every box. Finally, after searching the first few rows, she found her target. 

She slipped the heavy object out of the velvet pouch it was stored in and inspected her loot. 

The diamond’s facets glistened smoothly in the florescent light of the vault. It was large enough to fill the palm of her hand and so clear that she could see the dust on the vault floor through it. Raina’s notes hadn’t included any information on why they wanted this specific diamond of course, but Jemma did her own research. 

Supposedly, a diamond with as few imperfections as this one could be used as a prism to magnify and disperse certain non-visible wavelengths of light while absorbing excess heat and radiation from them. What Jemma’s advisors would actually use it for was still a mystery, but Jemma didn’t want to push her luck by asking unnecessary questions. She considered this a mission accomplished, slipped the diamond back into its pouch and slid her backpack off her back to stash it. 

Then, the vault door started to shake. 

Jemma froze in place, eyes fixed on the door as the shaking grew more intense and reverberated through the floor. By the time Jemma thought _maybe it’s time to, you know, get out here!!_ the massive hinge on the vault rattled apart and the door was knocked inward. 

Metal pieces from the door clattered to the floor, knocking dust everywhere and clouding Jemma’s view momentarily. Jemma didn’t need to see the other side to know who had opened the door, though. 

It was Quake. She stepped through the doorway, waving the dust away and looking generally bored. Jemma’s heart jolted in horror as soon as she saw her standing there in her full superhero regalia. Or maybe that was a leap of excitement. It was hard to tell in these circumstances. 

“Really, Raina, I thought you were beyond bank robbing. I always thought it was too cliché for—” Quake stopped when her eyes landed on Jemma, crouched over her backpack. “You’re not Raina.”

“No, I’m—” Jemma cleared her throat and pulled her best American accent. “I’m new.”

_I’m new???? That was the best thing you could think of??_ Jemma scolded herself internally. Apparently, Quake had a similar thought, as she just stood there, blinking owlishly. 

“Um…okay,” Quake replied, “You’re first act as a bad guy is to rob a diamond from a bank? Are you guys given a Bingo card at Supervillain Orientation or something?”

Jemma scoffed and propped her hands on her hips in what she was sure was a poor imitation of a traditional power pose. “No! There’s no…um— It’s…”

Damnit. Another thing she forgot to work on: her witty banter. Isn’t she supposed to throw in some puns based on her powers or something?

Quake just seemed entertained. She didn’t even look like she was concerned about the fact that Jemma had a rare diamond stuffed in her bag and was looking for any opening to escape. She strolled towards Jemma casually. 

Jemma took a few involuntary steps backwards. What else was she supposed to do when a superhero came at her? 

Quake’s eye sparkled with amusement. “Look, you obviously are new at this and probably don’t really want to be doing this, so I’m going to let you off with a warning this time. I’ll close my eyes for exactly a minute and all you need to do is put the diamond in my hand and walk out the door. I won’t look where you go and I might even tell the security guards you beat me. Maybe it’ll boost your street cred or something.”

Quake held her hand out in front of her, palm up, and closed her eyes. “If you try to leave with the diamond, I will stop you though. Just saying. Alright counting down. One one-thousand, two one-thousand—”

She was serious. Great, Jemma was getting pity from one of her heroes. She sure as hell wasn’t leaving here empty-handed, though. 

“—Five one-thousand, six one-thousand—”

Jemma rustled the contents of her bag to appear like she was digging out the diamond and glanced around the floor for something to help. 

Perfect! There was a metal bar only a few feet from Quake’s feet. It wasn’t ideal, but it would do the job. 

Jemma silently grabbed her bag and tiptoed around Quake, who continued to count. 

“—Ten one-thousand, eleven one-thousand—”

Jemma leaned as far over as she could towards the piece of metal. Slowly, she reached for it, not wanting to move too close for fear that Quake would realize she was up to something and open her eyes. 

“—Nineteen one-thousand, twenty one-thousand. I was serious about the one minute thing by the way. Twenty-one one-thousand—”

Jemma rolled her eyes. One of her vines twisted down her arm and closed the distance between Jemma’s fingers and the bar and coiled around it. Now or never. 

Jemma swung. The metal bar cracked Quake in the back of the head, just hard enough to provide a little disorientation, but not do any lasting damage. Quake let lose a stream of very un-superhero-ly curses, which Jemma didn’t stick around to hear the full scope of. 

She grabbed her bag and darted for the door. Once outside it, she wrapped all her vines around the displaced door and pulled with all their might while her hands searched through her bag. The door slid into something resembling its original position and Jemma slapped another of Fitz’s inventions on the seam. If it worked correctly (which it would, since Fitz created it), it would weld the door to the frame in an instant. 

Jemma didn’t even have to feel the angry vibrations building in the floor before she was bolting for her exit. She whipped out the Mouse Hole one last time to create an exit into the dark alley that opened to a busy street that Jemma had mapped out as an alternative exit. 

Jemma paused in the alley for half a moment to tug some nondescript clothes out of her bag, throw them over her costume, remove her mask and tie her hair up, before she melted in to the foot traffic on the sidewalk. She barely stopped to check if any vines were poking out of her jacket. She was too focused on keeping her pace slow and natural, rather than sprinting for home. 

If she picked up her pace a little when she felt a deep rumble come from the direction of the bank behind her, she hoped no one noticed. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, look who finally managed to finish something! As usual, sorry for this taking so long. Adulting sucks.   
> But here it is! I was really excited to write this chapter cuz Quake and Jemma finally officially meet!! Hope you all enjoy!


	6. Chapter 6

Jemma didn’t sleep that night. She was too full of adrenaline. After power walking the entire way home, she knocked on Fitz’s door, gave him a quick thumbs up, and jogged to her apartment without another word. 

Once inside, she stripped off her green costume and stuffed everything in her backpack, before she shoved it into the deepest recesses of her closet. Even if there was any reason to, Jemma wouldn’t have had to worry about hiding her vines from anyone; she was so tense that they were all curled up tightly against her back and refused to budge. 

Jemma spent about an hour with her head between her knees, forcing herself to take deep breaths, before she managed to get up to try to brew herself some chamomile tea. It was another two hours before Jemma could stomach turning on the TV. 

She flipped through the channels, relaxing slightly at the usual late-night programming that was running on all channels. 

Then she found a channel that was showing news. Jemma gulped at the 'Breaking News' banner scrolling across the screen and her hands started to shake as she turned up the volume. 

“We have a breaking story from downtown. There has been an attempted robbery at the First National Bank at the corner of 4th Avenue and Jefferson. Initial reports claim that notorious vigilante, Quake, whose allegiances and motives are still unknown, may be behind the break in, as she was found in one of the lower vaults,” the reporter woman read, while standing in front of the bank where Jemma had just been. Jemma huffed out a laugh at the news. A flurry of activity at the bank doors drew the attention of the cameraman, causing the reporter to whip around as well. “It appears security is bringing her out now.”

The news crew jogged across the street where a half dozen security guards were attempting to drag Quake down the steps towards the waiting police car. She didn't appear to be struggling too harshly, but she was definitely digging in her heels and arguing with the guards. The microphone finally got close enough to hear  what she was saying. 

“—I’m telling you, it wasn’t me. There was some plant lady. I was there to stop her!” Quake insisted. 

“Quake! Quake!” The reporter called, pulling her attention. Normally, Jemma would have thought that this woman was annoying, but now she was giving Jemma vital information, so she would excuse the reporter’s intrusiveness. 

Apparently, Quake agreed with Jemma’s initial reaction as, the moment she saw the camera, she wrenched her arm free of the guard so she could hide her face, but not before she got in an obvious eye roll. 

“Quake! Are you saying there’s a new villain in the city?” the reporter pried, shoving the microphone as close as she could get to Quake through the wall of security. 

“Yes! Some lady with plants growing out of her broke in—”

“Yeah yeah, you can tell us all about this plant chick at the station,” one of the guards grumbled. 

“I don’t think so,” Quake snapped. She twisted free of the rest of the guards holding her, knocked them back a few paces with a blast from her palms, and then rocketed into the dark sky and disappeared. 

“A new development in the story has just come forward: Quake claims there is a new super villain in town,” the reporter announced to the camera. “Is this a new threat to our safety or just a clever ruse to deflect the blame for a robbery gone wrong? More on this at 6, back to you Tom.”

Jemma barked out a laugh of relief. On the one hand, it didn’t appear they had any leads on solving the robbery. On the other, Jemma now had an actual superhero, who was probably a bit irate with her, on her tail. 

Jemma spent the rest of the night pacing her apartment, weighing the pros and cons of her situation and thinking of things she could have done better during the heist. The news stayed on in the background on silent and Jemma occasionally glanced at it to see if there were any updates. The whole time her eyes continually drifted to the closet where she knew the diamond was stashed, tucked under mountain of clothes. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once the sun rose, Jemma decided she should probably go back to her normal routine of lab work to minimize suspicion. First, she needed coffee though. 

The coffee shop on the university’s campus was notoriously terrible, so Jemma decided to walk the extra three blocks to a nice little café. She figured the walk would be a nice outlet for some of her anxious energy anyway. 

The place was packed for the morning rush, giving Jemma plenty of time to peruse the menu. She decided on a Chai latte and a bagel and waited patiently for the customers in front of her to be served. She was already beginning to feel calmer about the bank situation, since no new evidence had been found overnight. 

Finally the last customer made their decision and got out of the way, leaving Jemma face-to-face with the barista. 

“What can I get for ya?” she asked. 

It was Quake. Or whoever Quake actually was. 

Now that Jemma had seen her up close (twice, technically), Jemma would recognize her anywhere. Even through the excessively dark eye makeup and the long, black wig she wore, Quake’s features were etched in Jemma’s mind from their terrifying encounter at the bank. It didn’t help that Jemma had been mildly obsessed with her since she first came out to fight the villains of the city. 

Jemma forgot to breathe. She glanced at the side of Quake’s neck and saw a dark, purplish bruise, probably from Jemma whacking her with a metal pole. Jemma froze and waited for the moment Quake would realize who she was, rip off her stained apron, and blast her out of the building. 

The moment didn’t come. Quake eyed Jemma curiously and waited for her to say something. Jemma tried to force herself to speak, but she was petrified. 

“You look kind of familiar. Have you come in before?” she prodded. 

Jemma shook her head violently. “No! I, um, I study at the university.”

 _Great, now when she figures out who you are, she’ll know exactly where to find you,_ Jemma scolded herself. 

Quake smiled and leaned on the counter. “No way! I’ve got some friends who go there. I’m surprised we haven't met. I’m Daisy.”

 _Daisy._ Not a name one would picture for a vigilante superhero. She held her hand out for Jemma to shake and Jemma flashed back to that embarrassing moment at the bank where Quake pitied her enough to offer to let her go. Jemma probably wasn’t going to get that offer again. 

She made sure the vine she felt creeping down her arm was tucked up in her sleeve and politely shook her hand. “Jemma.”

The large man behind Jemma in line irritably cleared his throat, which Daisy responded to by waving him off with a glare. 

“Well, nice to meet you Jemma. Have you decided to what you want yet?”

Jemma flushed and recited her order and Daisy dutifully punched it into the register. Jemma paid and scooted out of the way. A few moments later, Daisy appeared at the counter next to her with Jemma’s coffee and a small paper bag with her bagel. 

“Here you go. Hope to see you again sometime!” Daisy said brightly with a smile that seemed too authentic to be the company-mandated salutation. 

Jemma flashed a quick smile and darted out the door, her heart racing. Time for another pro and con list. 

Pro: Jemma now knew Quake’s (her arch-nemesis?) secret identity, and place of employment. Con: Quake now knew where Jemma worked and, if she ever stumbled into the biology lab, she would no doubt recognize the 2.0 of the plant that Jemma was currently cultivating. Pro: Quake (Daisy) seemed to have no idea that Jemma was the 'plant lady' who had nearly gotten her arrested less than 12 hours before. 

If the little smiley face drawn behind Jemma’s name on her coffee cup was any indication, Daisy seemed to like her. Pro/Con?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! Skimmons interaction (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ (finally)


	7. Chapter 7

Before Jemma headed to the lab, she went to Raina's office to drop off the diamond according to Raina's strict instructions. The diamond was wrapped up in foil, then stuffed in a lead-lined jewelry box (which Raina provided discreetly after their initial meeting). Then Jemma slipped into Raina's office when she knew Raina wouldn't be there, located the dictionary, and opened it, revealing the carved out center of the book which was just wide enough to fit the box. She slid the jewelry box into the book, replaced it on the shelf, and slunk out of the office, to head down the the lab. 

When Jemma made it to the lab, she was already frazzled due to the encounter in the coffee shop. For a moment, she thought she was hallucinating when she saw her desk covered in boxes and a plastic bag draped over her latest experimental plant. 

The only other person in the lab was Fitz who was piling his works in progress into cardboard boxes similar to the ones on Jemma’s desk.

“Um, Fitz? What's going on?” Jemma asked, clutching her coffee a little tighter. 

Fitz lurched, just now noticing  Jemma’s presence. “Oh, I'm surprised you came in today. We're being relocated. Raina came down earlier and told me they found us a quieter lab space.” 

“That's strange.”

“I know.” Fitz gulped and looked concerned. Jemma could tell he was dying to ask about last night, but he wouldn't. Not with all the cameras around.

Jemma finished packing up her experiments and lab reports and hauled her boxes out the door when Fitz was ready. 

As they stepped into the hallway, a man in a dark suit stepped in front of them.

“If you two would follow me,” the man declared, rather than requested. Without another word, he turned on his heel and marched down the hall. Jemma glanced at Fitz apprehensively, but dutifully followed, her vines curling down her arms prepared to strike if necessary.

The man seemed to be leading them on a scenic tour of the campus. They wove through hallways and various buildings that housed classes of every subject besides her own.

Finally they crossed a parking lot to a small building Jemma had never even seen on a campus map. 

The suited man leading them swiped a key card at the door and continued to march through. Jemma and Fitz scampered after them, eager to get to their destination as their boxes were growing increasingly heavy. Most of the rooms they passed appeared to be empty, filled with nothing but lab equipment. If she wasn't afraid of getting left behind, Jemma would have loved to stop and inspect the high-end equipment she saw in the empty labs. 

They rounded the corner and Jemma saw a hulking, intimidating man dressed in all black standing at the door of one of the rooms. _I wonder which way we're going,_ Jemma thought sarcastically.

Predictably, the suited man led them into the guarded room. It was a massive lab, at least twice the size of the one they used before the explosion. All the equipment was state-of-the-art and matching stainless steel, giving the room a shiny, futuristic feel. 

And standing in the middle of the room, ruining whatever laboratory fantasies Jemma was brewing, was Garrett. He was in his civilian attire today, leaning against one of the pristine, black counter tops with a cane propped up next to him. 

"Welcome," he greeted, "How do you like it?"

Jemma scanned the room again. It looked like Fitz was about to swoon, but he kept his professional face on. 

Garrett spoke up again. before Jemma had a chance to respond. "Everything in this room is brand new, best that money could buy. I don't know how any of this stuff works, but I'm sure you two can figure it out. The best part? No cameras, listening equipment anywhere, or witnesses anywhere."

Jemma gulped. Was this supposed to be a threat? Garrett and the two guards obviously had the upper hand, but why would they make Jemma and Fitz pack up all their things if they were just planning on threatening them? Or worse.

"Where are my manners? Go ahead and put your stuff down. Anywhere is fine, you can organize whenever," Garrett said.

Jemma furrowed her brow. "I'm sorry, I think I'm confused. What exactly are we doing here?"

Garrett just laughed, which set Jemma more on edge. "Raina didn't tell you? You're being upgraded. You came through on that heist the other night and we decided to reward you."

Jemma tensed and her eyes spot towards the hall. What if someone was walking past and overheard?

"Relax. The only people in this building are the five people who are in this room. Remember what I said about the cameras? There's no way anyone will be able to see what you're working on in here. You get total freedom."

Jemma gaped. Not only did they get to use this great lab space, but they didn't have to share with anyone?

"Excuse me, but why I am here?" Fitz asked, finally pulling his eyes off the engineering equipment  in the lab. 

"You're here, son, because you came in handy. Not that I doubt little Flower Power over there, but I don't think what she pulled off would have been possible without your tools. You're here because you've got the potential to help us all out a ton, but only if you're given the resources to do it," Garrett replied. 

Fitz glanced at her and Jemma just shrugged and gave him an 'it's true' look. She felt slightly guilty about having dragged him into her situation, despite her best efforts, but he looked too pleased with himself at the moment for her to feel too bad. 

"Well, as much fun as this has been, I have other things to do today. These are for you.”

Garett slid two matching manila envelopes off the counter behind him and handed them to Jemma and Fitz.

“In here, you’ll find your ID cards to get you in the building. These will only work in your hands. They're coded to your fingerprints, as well as having a chip that gets you in the door. The building is never locked for you so feel free to come in whenever to get the urge to do your science-y stuff. Also, a few other things are in there that might help you out. Have fun, kids.”

Once they took their envelopes, Garrett grabbed his cane, gave them a short wave, and strolled from the room. One by one the security guards followed, until Jemma and Fitz were left alone.

They slipped the packet of materials out of the envelopes and flipped through them. Jemma’s contained the resumé of an MMA trainer who seemed to specialize in training people with powers, a gym membership card (rude, but fair), and a schedule of sessions Jemma was apparently already enrolled in. Fitz’s had a pile of half-finished schematics and a copy of the non-disclosure agreement with the part about complete secrecy of all projects highlighted. 

Once they had glanced over the items, both of their attention shifted to the state-of-the-art lab. Jemma threw her things on a counter and darted around, checking out all the equipment. Behind her she could hear Fitz doing the same.

“Oh my god, look at all this. Not only the equipment, but the shelves of raw materials—” Fitz shouted at her.

“Look! Full sets of beakers, a bunsen burner that isn’t held together with duct tape—” Jemma marveled.

“—I didn’t think this machine was even available to the general public—”

“—they even splurged on the good desiccator—”

“—is this _vibranium_??”

Once they had sufficiently fawned over their new lab, Jemma marched over to the impeccably organized cabinet and grabbed a black lab coat (interesting choice, but it was all they had).

“You know what this means, Fitz?” Jemma asked. 

“What?”

Jemma snapped on a pair of protective goggles. “We better get to work.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shout out to those 2 people who recently commented because I had this chapter like 90% finished, but had no motivation to actually continue the story. I love this story so I'm glad at least someone enjoys it still and I'm going to try to keep updating it!


	8. Chapter 8

Jemma glared at the plant in front of her. She did exactly the same thing with this one that she had with the one currently embedded in her spine, but something apparently wasn't working right. The vines grew up the trellis just like the original for the first few weeks, but the curved spikes that had grown along the original never appeared on the 2.0 version. Also, in the last few days, some of the leaves had started to turn brown and crunchy. She snaked out a few vines to grab some shears and a test tube so she could run some more tests. 

Her daily training sessions with her new trainer, Scarlotti, were both helping and killing her. Somehow, he knew exactly how to help her control her new abilities and was teaching her a whole range of techniques that could be used in combat. On the other hand, the hand-to-hand combat sessions were wreaking havoc on her muscles and she could barely move her arms anymore. 

While she was pouring over her research notes to see if she went wrong anywhere, Fitz was in the other corner of their lab hard at work. 

"Jemma, come check this out. I think I've finally perfected this," he called. 

Jemma ran her hands down her face. Maybe a break would be a good idea. 

"What is--"

"Tada!" Fitz announced with a flourish.

He spun around with an outfit on a coat hanger in his hands. It appeared to be a full body suit of some sort made entirely of dark green material. 

"It's made out of an experimental material that is five times stronger than Kevlar at half the weight. Also, tear resistant and built-in shock absorbency, just in case you get thrown into any walls by a certain vigilante. It's not perfect, but it'll hopefully prevent excessive bruising or broken bones," Fitz said with a shrug 

Jemma just blinked. It looked a bit...tight.

"I know, but if you're going to get dragged into this stuff, you have to at least look the part," Fitz replied, seeing her face. "You should also come up with a cool name for yourself before the news decides on something for you."

Jemma wrinkled her nose. "I'm not making up a name."

Fitz rolled his eyes. “Fine, but at least try on the costume. I want to make sure I got the measurements right."

Jemma reluctantly agreed and retreated to the chemical shower and pulled the curtain around her. Despite the clingy look of the material, it slid on effortlessly. Jemma also realized that the back laced up, leaving enough open space for all the vines on her back to move freely. She tugged the laces tight, gripping the strings tight with her vines when it got to the point her arms couldn't reach. 

Once she was ready, she whipped the curtain back and stepped out. 

Fitz just began barraging her with questions about how it fit and if the fabric moved well. He prodded her in the side a few times with a wrench to see if she could feel it through the suit, before she smacked his hands away with a vine. 

Once satisfied that it would work properly, he handed her a mask, made out of a similarly colored, stiff material molded to her face that adhered to her skin so she wouldn't have to worry about it sliding off. 

Fitz eyed her up and down, tapping his finger to his lips. “It needs something still.”

Jemma found a reflective surface on one of the stainless steel appliances and gawked. 

She looked like a real superhero. The suit was snug, but looked solid enough to be more than just spandex. She ran her hands down the front and was surprised at how sturdy and protective it seemed, without being laden with bulky padding. The lace-up back looked stylish, as well as being functional and her vines seemed to revel in the freedom to move. 

Her longer vines curled down her arms and legs and circled her waist. The light green vines and the small leaves that sprouted from them added the finishing touch to her persona. The rest of her vines loosely curled against her back and shoulders, waiting for Jemma to use them. 

A sensor beeped, indicating that someone has entered the building. A second passed and another beep sounded, followed by a third. The computer that monitored the building’s security flashed the pictures of the three people who had entered: Raina, Garrett, and Quinn. 

Jemma snapped her head towards Fitz, mentally screaming _what do I do??_

“Quick, take it off! It’s not ready yet!” he hissed. 

Jemma darted for the chemical shower, but the lab door swung open before she could tug the curtain in front of her. 

A low whistle came from the door. “Well, don’t you look legit,” Garrett drawled. 

Raina nodded in agreement. “Very nice work, Fitz. Simmons, come up here so we can take a look at you.”

Four sets of eyes bored into Jemma and suddenly she felt very self-conscious. All of her vines retreated to her back where they curled up tightly, unwilling to budge. Jemma shuffled to the center of the room and did her best not to make eye contact with the three supervillians that were leering at her. 

Fitz jumped in, “It’s—It’s not quite done yet I need to—” 

Quinn waving him off silenced any further protest. “Can you make me something like that? I’m thinking gold.”

“Don’t you think that would be a bit flashy, Quinn? But this one is perfect,” Raina replied. “Just in time, too. We have another job to do.”

“Um…we?” Jemma asked. 

Raina smirked. “This is going to be a job for all of us. It’s about time we show off our new pet project to the world so it can see what we can do.”

“Oh, ok,” Jemma muttered, not really looking forward to working side-by-side with her advisors. “So, what is this job?”

“Have you ever heard of Shady Acres?” Raina asked and held out an envelope to Jemma. She opened it and flipped through the information. One thing quickly stood out to her.

Shady Acres was a nursing home. 

Jemma caught sight of her reflection again in one of the shiny instruments nearby and her entire appearance seemed to shift and she had a realization: 

She wasn’t a superhero after all. She was a villain. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jemma was robbing old people. That was literally one of the worst things someone could do, next to kicking puppies or punching babies. Raina said that they were hitting this particular location because some of the residents owned heirlooms made of the purest forms of precious metals, before they were tainted with cheaper metals after World War II. Specifically, they were aiming for a multi-billionaire tycoon who was forced into the nursing home so his greedy kids could divide up his estates, but he managed to smuggle some of his precious jewels in with him. Also, Jemma was told, whatever else they could grab to make more noise out of this particular heist, the better. A portion might even go directly into her student account. 

She felt nauseous as she watched her accomplices suit up. Garrett dropped his prosthetic limbs on the table, snapped on the glowing robotic versions with a grunt, and strapped on a Kevlar vest and a silver helmet. Raina changed out of her business-formal flowery dress into simple black stretchy pants and a plain black hoodie. Jemma tried not to stare in fascination as Raina’s hair seemed to recede into her scalp and thick black thorns replaced it down her neck and across her face. Her eyes morphed from dark brown to brilliant gold. She smirked in Jemma’s direction as she flipped her hood up to hide her thorns. Jemma tugged on the laces up her back and shook out her hair, just for something to do.

Quinn’s 'costume' was a solid black suit (as opposed to the gray suit that he normally wore) and a small mask that covered only the area around his eyes. How he hadn’t managed to get them all arrested yet was a miracle.

They slipped out of the back of the private lab where an unmarked armored car was waiting for them. Quinn drove and they all rode silently. Jemma got the impression that none of her advisors really enjoyed each other’s company, but needed something that the others could offer. 

They made the final turn out of the city center and the picturesque Shady Acres was directly in front of them. Manicured lawns and perfectly kept floral landscaping lined the front walkway of the tall, marble, apartment building, giving it a pleasant suburb-like appearance that contrasted sharply to the steel and glass city buildings a block over. The only similarity was the enclosed glass entryway. 

Which Quinn was headed right for. 

He floored the gas pedal, swerving around the concrete fountain in the center of the cul-de-sac and pointed the car towards the doors. Jemma gripped the door handle with all her might when she realized he wasn’t even slowing down. 

At the last second, Quinn jerked the wheel and pulled the emergency brake sending the car into a tailspin right through the glass doors. Jemma could hear the crashing of broken glass and the screams of the receptionist through the reinforced windows of the car. 

Garrett leaned across Jemma and pushed her door open. “Work your magic, Poison Ivy.”

He gave her a not-so-gentle shove out the door and she stumbled a bit on the fragments of window frames. 

As if on cue, two security guards barreled into the foyer and surveyed the damage, before their eyes landed on Jemma. 

Alright, time to do what Scarlotti taught her. 

The first one was younger and his training was fresher, as he was already holding his fists up in a defensive stance when Jemma advanced on him. She ducked his sloppy punch and maneuvered around to his back where she could snap a vine around his ankles and yank his feet out from under him. 

The second guard finally overcame his shock and moved to grab his radio. Jemma threw her entire bodyweight around his neck and flung him to the ground beside the first. Before they could get on their feet again, she snapped a vine around each of their necks. 

“You’re going to pass out for about an hour and a half now. And you’ll remember that I hit you a lot harder. It’ll look better for both of us,” Jemma muttered. She even thought that her tone sounded more like a polite request than a command, but when she pulled the vines back, the guards still passed out. Luckily, Raina and Garrett were still in the car and didn’t hear her. 

Once they saw that the guards were immobilized, they slid out of the car and Quinn sped off. 

“Good work, Simmons. Remember, you take the north rooms, I’ll take the south, Garrett clears us a path to the roof. We have limited time so work fast, but don’t forget to have fun,” Raina said, tossing Jemma a bag. 

“Do I ever forget to have fun?” Garrett asked. 

“That’s usually the one thing you remember to do,” Raina grumbled, “Also, Garrett? Don’t be too rough with the nurses.”

Garrett just rolled his eyes and stomped away, firing his ICERs (courtesy of Fitz) into the air and cackling as he went. 

Raina rolled her eyes in response. “Quinn’s meeting us on the roof in thirty minutes. Don’t be late or we might leave you behind.”

Raina’s tone sounded teasing as she jogged down the south hallway, but Jemma was completely sure that she was serious. 

Jemma took a deep breath and ran down the opposite hallway as Raina.

The first few rooms were fine. The residents were out so Jemma didn’t have to think too hard about what she was doing as she rooted through their drawers and pulled out anything gold or silver. 

The ones where the residents were in the rooms were the worst. Some were sleeping but a lot asked who she was and what she was doing, while Jemma did her best not to make eye contact. One room had a woman who went by 'Peggy,' according to the name tag on the door, and she managed to sucker punch Jemma in the jaw before Jemma could slip out the door and lock it behind herself. 

Raina and Garrett didn’t have to know that Jemma strategically picked out any jewelry that said 'Grandma' or lockets with pictures in them and left them in the drawers. 

She finished the first floor and headed up to the second. 

And that’s when she felt the floor rumble. 

If this was the first time she encountered it, Jemma wouldn’t have thought much of it, but she knew what usually followed. 

Sure enough, moments later she saw Garrett blasted down the opposite hallway and out of sight. Quake (who Jemma now knew as 'Daisy,' but still seemed like an entirely different entity) followed with her hand still outstretched in Garrett’s direction. Jemma considered ducking into one of the rooms and hiding, but that would just put the poor resident in danger. 

Raina came bolting from the other hallway than the one Garrett and been flung down and threw herself at Quake. They exchanged punches, each blocking the other’s moves, until Raina landed a lucky swipe and left long, red claw marks across Quake’s cheek. Quake growled and roundhouse kicked Raina in the stomach before sending her blasting down the hall into a cluster of wheelchairs. 

Quake turned down Jemma’s hallway, looking every bit the superhero she was with her hair tousled and scratched face, and held up her hand in Jemma’s direction. Jemma braced for the impact, but it didn’t come. 

Quake groaned, “Aw man, you again? And you’re working with these losers?” She gestured in Raina and Garret’s direction. 

“Um…yes?” Jemma replied. 

Quake threw her head back and groaned again. “I really hoped that you were, like, a one-time bad guy and got bored. I really don’t have time for four, full-time villains.”

“Well, sorry to inconvenience you,” Jemma snapped, “Some of us have bills to pay.”

“Dude, I’m really regretting giving you a second chance,” Quake snarled. Without warning she let loose a blast at Jemma that knocked her through a door and into a storage closet. 

 _Thank god for Fitz’s shock-absorbance idea_ , she thought as she pushed herself to her feet. She kicked a bucket out of her way and assumed her best fighting stance, with her bag of jewelry clutched tightly against her back by a spare vine. 

Quake assumed a similar stance at the other end of the hall. 

Before either of them could move to attack each other, a tiny elderly woman in a wheelchair scooted herself out of her room right between them. 

“Is it time for the movie yet, dear?” she asked in Quake’s direction. 

“Um…no, m’am. But uh, you should probably go back to your room,” Quake replied with a glance toward Jemma. 

The woman muttered something to herself and scooted towards Jemma’s end of the hall. 

And that’s when Jemma noticed the large crack running down the ceiling. Her impact with the closet must have knocked something loose structurally and a large chunk of ceiling was about to break off. 

Jemma dove towards the old woman and threw her hands and all her vines above her head a split second before a giant piece of the ceiling crashed towards the ground. Jemma caught it with a groan, trying to balance out the bulk of the structure so it didn’t topple onto the woman she had just saved. Thankfully, Jemma’s vines added considerable strength to her arms or she and the woman both would have been crushed. 

After a moment, Jemma felt a shockwave from Quake knock the ceiling piece backwards where it would hit the ground. Jemma hurriedly wheeled the woman into the nearest open room. 

“Just, uh, stay in here and chat for awhile. The movie’s at five,” Jemma rambled shutting the door before the woman could escape again. 

When Jemma spun around, she gasped and her back hit the door. Quake was so close that Jemma could see her individual eyelashes and every detail of her face. 

“So, you’re not a terrible person after all,” Quake stated with her eyes narrowed. 

Jemma didn’t know how to respond. Before her accident, all Fitz did was make fun of Jemma’s 'crush' on Quake and Jemma vehemently denied that such a thing existed. 

She was a damn liar. 

Quake was now standing within touching distance, boxing Jemma into the doorframe and staring. Jemma was frozen. She knew what she _wanted_ to do in this situation and also what she _should_ do. Unfortunately, she didn’t feel like she could do either at the moment. 

And her stupid vines were stubbornly curled up on her back and being no help whatsoever. 

Luckily, a movement behind Quake drew Jemma’s attention from Quake’s expectant brown eyes. Raina was finally dragging herself out of the pile of wheelchairs and staring in Jemma’s direction, waiting. She seemed to be looking forward to Jemma’s answer to Quake’s statement as well. 

Again, Jemma knew who she _wanted_ to impress and who she _should_ impress. 

Unfortunately, the admiration of a superhero didn’t pay for school. She sighed and pulled her attention back to Quake. 

“You have no idea what kind of person I am,” Jemma muttered. 

She jerked a knee up to collide with Quake’s rib cage and, when she reeled backwards, punched her in the face. She coiled half her vines around Quake’s waist and flung her down the hallway with all of her strength and sprinted towards Raina, who led the way to the roof. 

If Jemma 'accidentally' dropped her bag of stolen goods on the way, she would just explain that it was lost during the fight. 

They reached the roof without being pursued and dove into the waiting helicopter that Quinn was piloting. Garrett was already inside, his helmet beside him, his robotic leg sparking ominously, and a sour look on his face. Raina and Quinn discussed what they managed to steal and if it would be 'enough,' while Jemma held on for her life and gazed down at the ground. 

The entire building was surrounded by police cars and ambulances with their lights flashing. There were at least two news trucks already pointing their cameras at the building while a reporter tried to get information from the police. 

The last thing Jemma noticed before they were too far to see anything was a black-clad figure emerge on the roof, glance in the direction of the helicopter, before  launching onto a nearby roof and running toward the next one. 


	9. Chapter 9

“I’m really getting tired of _Quake_ showing up everywhere we go,” Raina whined. The thorns all over her body had shifted away and been replaced by smooth skin and silky hair and Raina was holding an ice pack to her temple. 

“You and me both, sister,” Garrett grumbled. He seemed to still be having some difficulties getting his robotic leg to detach and was angrily jabbing the flickering appendage with a screwdriver and wincing. 

Quinn paced around his office, where they had all gathered to get out of their super villain attire and regroup, with a drink in his hand and scowled out the window. “Just once, it would be nice to not have to worry about getting knocked out of the sky. Helicopter repairs aren’t cheap _or_ discreet, you know.”

Jemma just sat there silently. She had pulled a hoodie and sweatpants on over her bodysuit, just until she could get home and change like she desperately wanted to. 

Raina sighed. “Yes, because that’s the most important take-away here. Not the fact that if Quake managed to capture even one of us and turn us over to the police, they would have reasonable cause to investigate everything we’ve done over the years, no matter how much money you throw at them.”

“I think you underestimate what money can do,” Quinn replied. 

“And I think you overestimate it,” Raina snapped. “Look, we just need to start thinking about solutions. There’s only one superhero in this city and four of us. I may be overstating the rest of your abilities, but I think all of us can come up with something.”

“Well, we could start with her fixation on Bulbasaur over there,” Garrett suggested. 

It took Jemma a few moments of silence to realize Garrett was talking about her. She shot him a glare at the nickname. 

Raina hummed. “That’s true. She does seem to give Simmons more leeway than the rest of us. She can probably tell you’re still fresh out of the gate. No offense.”

“Um…none taken,” Jemma muttered. She fidgeted with the hem of her shirt. She didn’t enjoy the fact that all three sets of eyes in the room were trained on her. 

Raina tossed her melted ice pack on the desk and leaned forward. Even though it was Quinn’s office, she commanded the space like she owned it. 

“Simmons,” she started sweetly, “How would you like to help us with our little superhero problem? Permanently.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jemma propped up her head on the coffee shop table and stared at the door. Every time it opened and the little bell dinged she perked up a bit, but when it wasn’t who she was hoping for, she relaxed and let her eyes drift closed. 

She had been spending basically every hour she didn’t have to be in class in the lab growing new plants. Her advisors were starting to push even harder to get results. Since 2.0 shriveled up and died and 1.0 was inseparable from her spinal cord, she had to start from scratch again. At least the most recent ones hadn’t died yet. 

The door dinged again and Jemma cracked open an eye to see just the person she was waiting for. 

Fitz hustled through the throng of people standing in the morning rush line. His hair was standing up on end like he had been running his hands through it for hours, his shirt was wrinkled, and he was already clutching a very large cup of coffee. 

“Morning,” Jemma muttered. 

“You say 'morning' like I slept. I’ve been in the lab since you left last night,” Fitz grumbled, taking a long swig of coffee. 

“I left at 5 this morning.”

“I know. I had to get a design done for class this afternoon that I barely even started on because suddenly, I have to fix Garrett’s leg and design Raina a new outfit,” Fitz complained. 

“I’m sorry, Fitz. I didn’t mean to drag you into this,” Jemma said. 

“It’s fine. I just don’t think your advisors realize the extra stress that they put on us.” Fitz shrugged. “Mostly you, I mean, I just get to sit in the lab and get yelled at about deadlines.”

Jemma sighed. “You don’t know the half of it.”

“I’ve been so busy complaining that I forgot you wanted to talk about something,” Fitz exclaimed. “Though, I’m curious as to why you want to talk here, where there’s a ton of people who could overhear us, instead of the unmonitored lab.”

“I don’t fully trust that it is unmonitored, honestly,” Jemma replied. “There’s always a chance that there’s some listening devices that we haven’t found that lead straight to Raina’s office. Also, I need to show you something first. I can’t be the only one to know.”

Fitz glowered over his coffee. “I have 4 hours to finish the calculations on a cloaking device for class. If you dragged me out of the lab to tell me that your new favorite place has gluten-free biscuits—“

“Caramel latte with soy milk for Jemma,” a familiar voice interrupted. Jemma saw her heading this way, she wasn’t surprised. Watching Fitz choke on his coffee in shock almost made her laugh out loud. 

Daisy stood at the corner of their booth with a coffee in one hand and a plate holding a bagel in the other. Her dark makeup had more hints of blue in it than normal today, but the straight, black wig was still very much the same. Despite the goth-y look and chain jewelry, she had a friendly smile on her face directed towards Jemma. The only evidence of their meeting a few days before was the two, thin scratches trailing down her cheek with small butterfly bandages across them. 

“Thank you, Daisy. I didn’t order the bagel, though,” Jemma replied. 

Daisy just shrugged. “It’s on me. It’s gluten-free and comes with organic cream cheese, since I know you like that kind of stuff.”

Jemma smiled, in spite of knowing Daisy was technically her enemy. “Thank you. You really don’t have to give me free food all the time.”

“It’s not like anyone’s actually buying it,” Daisy smirked.

Daisy lingered for a moment longer, as if she wanted to say something else, but noticed Fitz and stopped herself. Fitz finally got over his initial shock and spoke up. 

“What happened to your face?” he asked, tactfully, gesturing to Daisy’s cheek. 

“Oh—I, uh, was petsitting for a friend whose cat hates me,” she replied nonchalantly. “I should probably get back to work. See you around?”

“See you around,” Jemma agreed.

Fitz gaped at Daisy’s back as she jogged back to the counter. 

“Was that—“ Fitz whispered across the booth.

“Yep.”

“And was she—”

“Hitting on me? Yes.”

“Does she—“

“Know that I know? No.”

“Do your advisors—“

“No, and they aren’t going to.”

Fitz leaned back with his eyes wide and took another sip of his coffee. “This is insane.”

“Yes, and what’s more insane is that my advisors want me to kill her,” Jemma hissed across the table. 

Fitz choked on his coffee again. “What?!”

Jemma nodded. “After our…project the other day, they were talking about 'permanent solutions' to getting rid of Quake and because, apparently, she’s nicer to me, it became my job to take care of it.” Jemma flopped her head into her hands and groaned. “What am I going to do?”

“Obviously, you’re not going to kill a person,” Fitz whispered and looked at Jemma like she had grown a second head. 

“How can I not? We’ve established that they don’t have any qualms about murder. I don’t think me refusing to do what they want me to is just going to result in the loss of my scholarships at this point,” Jemma snapped. “But…” She trailed off and glanced the direction where Daisy just walked. 

Fitz paused. “So, what are you planning to do?”

“I have no idea.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Raina dropped by the lab unexpectedly the next day. Jemma was typing up her report on her latest test subjects, which were doing quite well, when Raina appeared in the doorway. 

“Hope this isn’t a bad time,” she drawled. 

“Raina! No, it’s not really. Um, how can I help you?” Jemma rambled.

“I’m actually here to help you today,” Raina said. “Where’s Fitz?”

“He’s in class.”

“Good. I’d like to keep this between as few people as possible,” Raina replied. “I’m sure you remember our little talk the other day about your next job.”

Jemma nodded. How could she forget?

“I thought of something that might help you accomplish that mission. Our friend Quake and I share a certain…quality that gave us our abilities.”

“What is it?” Jemma asked. 

“That’s not important.” Raina waved her off. “What is important is that there’s a genetic marker involved that needs to be activated to give someone like us powers. My thought is that if you have a sample, you might be able to isolate the genetic component and whip something up to help you solve our problem.”

“O-Oh.”

Raina set herself down in one of the lab chairs, crossed her legs, and held out her arm. “Do your thing, doc.”

Jemma didn’t feel the need to remind her that she wasn’t quite a doctor yet, and fumbled through gathering the necessary supplies. Normally, she would just let her vines do all the reaching and grabbing to save herself a bit of effort. With Raina’s eyes boring into her, she felt too self-conscious and just used her hands like a normal person, while her vines stayed tucked in her sleeves. 

While Jemma snapped on a tourniquet and searched for a vein to take some blood from, Raina glanced around the office. 

“It looks like you’re having some more success with this batch,” she commented, nodding to the two plants growing on a nearby counter. 

Jemma nodded. “Yes, these are cooperating much more than the last few. I cross-pollinated them with the spores from the one—well, the first experiment—and they’ve fared rather well. I’m almost to the point where I can attach some electrodes and see if any sort of control is possible.”

“Fascinating,” Raina muttered. “I assume we’ll be getting a full report of these developments?”

“Of course.”

“Good.” Jemma finished taking her sample and pressed a cotton ball to the area. “Well, if you have what you need, I’ll be off. Papers to grade, plans to hatch and all that.”

Raina breezed out of the room, leaving Jemma alone with a vial of blood and a thousand more questions. She could stop and consider all the ramifications of the material she was just handed, but her scientific side kicked in instead and she got to work. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jemma spent hours staring at samples of Raina’s blood under a microscope. There was something just slightly off in the chemicals flowing through her veins, though otherwise, everything looked human. 

She isolated Raina’s DNA and ran it through numerous tests to analyze every component she could. At first, she thought that the machines in the new lab weren’t properly calibrated, since she kept getting strange results. Then, she realized it wasn’t the machines: it was the DNA.

Somehow, there were extra molecules interspersed in Raina’s DNA that didn’t appear in normal DNA. In fact, it looked entirely different than any human DNA Jemma had ever seen. It was completely inhuman.

Raina (and apparently Daisy) were practically an entirely different species. Jemma pondered this revelation, while jumping into further tests. 

Eventually, she found an enzyme that appeared to be produced by the extra molecules in the DNA and was able to extract them and mix up a solution that might have some effectiveness for blocking Daisy’s powers. In the back of her mind, Jemma thought it could be just as effective against Raina, if she ever needed it. She shook off that thought and glanced around, as if somehow there was a mind-reader in this room that could tell on her. 

She ran some computer simulations on the compound and they all turned up positive, so Jemma was confident that it would be effective. Having made some progress, Jemma decided to take a break.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jemma headed to the coffee shop for the fifth time this week. She only could justify coming here so often because she had a bit of expendable income from her weekend exploits. Also, she could consider it 'enemy reconnaissance' if she really had to.

Not surprisingly, Daisy was working today. She had on a red plaid shirt and matching red accents around the black on her eyes. The dark color scheme and the scowl on her face at the guy mansplaining customer service to her made Jemma think that Daisy could make a really good super villain if she wanted to. 

The man finally got out of her way and Jemma approached the counter. Daisy’s face shifted completely from the annoyed scowl to a bright grin when she saw Jemma. 

“Hey Jemma, what can I get you today?” she asked. 

Jemma perused the menu while also glancing over Daisy. The red in her outfit today brought out the red tones in her brown eyes, which Jemma was having a hard time looking away from. It also brought out the red in the scratches on her cheek that were looking angrier than the day before. 

Jemma frowned. “Your…cat scratches aren’t looking so great. Have you put anything on them?”

Daisy huffed. “I’ve tried everything. Apparently that cat got into some evil stuff before it got to me.”

Jemma suddenly had a thought. “Hm. I might have something that’ll work for that. I can bring it in tomorrow if you’d like?” Jemma offered. She couldn’t have some infection ruining her barista/nemesis’s face.

“If you have something, I’ll definitely try it. Thanks.” Daisy smiled. “Now did you want to order something, or just talk about my face all day?”

Jemma chuckled. She could definitely talk about Daisy’s face all day. “Just one of those gluten-free bagels, please.”

Daisy smirked slightly to herself as she punched in the order. 

When her bagel came up in a small paper bag, Daisy dangled it over the pick-up counter and wiggled it a bit to get Jemma’s attention. 

“Thank you, Daisy. I’ll see you tomorrow,” Jemma called on her way to the door. 

“It’s a date!” was the reply. 

Jemma scurried out the door and back toward her lab. She tried not to think about Daisy’s words. She liked Daisy (and her alter-ego Quake, for that matter), but she didn’t want to encourage her advances. Jemma was completely sure that Daisy wouldn’t approve of Jemma’s side job if she found out. 

Jemma pushed thoughts of Daisy out of her mind as she returned to the lab. She finished typing up her report on her new plants to Raina and sent it off. 

They had been coming along quite well and had shown some preliminary reactions to electric impulses. Because of this she was able to isolate the exact genetic code in the plant that allowed it to be controlled (which was absent in all other attempts, except the one that was on her back), so she included this information in her report as well. 

Satisfied that her progress would get Raina off her back for at least a few weeks, Jemma grabbed her things and headed back to her apartment for the first time in days. 

 


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I usually do notes at the end but I feel like I should warn y'all, this is a doozy. I couldn't think of a good place to cut this so I just let it grow into one massive chapter, so hope you enjoy!  
> (Also, this ones a tad more serious than previous ones because stuff starts hitting the fan, so be warned of that too.)

The next day, Jemma headed back to the coffee shop. She had mixed up the compound she made from Raina’s sample with some general antiseptics and moisturizers and made a cream out if it to give to Daisy. Whatever got into the wound from Raina would hopefully be blocked by it and allow the scratches to heal. 

Daisy’s scratches looked even worse today. Hopefully this worked. 

Without a word, Jemma held the tiny jar out to Daisy. 

“Thank you,” Daisy said, taking the jar with a smile, “What exactly is it?” 

Jemma shrugged. “Just a little something I came up with in the lab.”

Daisy snorted. “So you’re getting a PhD in making face cream?”

“Biochemistry, actually. Mostly focusing on the various uses of genetically altered plants,” Jemma replied. 

“Huh,” Daisy muttered inspecting the jar, “How do I know your lab experiment won’t kill me?”

“I guess you just have to trust me.”

Daisy smirked. “Alright, I’ll give it a try. I know where to find you if I suddenly start sprouting leaves.”

Jemma blanched. “I’m sorry?”

Daisy waved the little jar in the air. “This has mutant plants in it, right? If I turn green, I’m gonna be annoyed.”

Jemma huffed out a nervous laugh. “Right, well, that shouldn’t happen. I, uh, have to meet with someone in the lab. Bye!”

Jemma scurried out the front door and took a few deep breaths. She thought for a moment she had blown her cover and Daisy figured out who she was. Telling Daisy about her research was probably a bad idea. She would be able to figure out who was behind the super villain who had a mutant plant attached to themselves if she really thought about it. 

Jemma’s phone dinged with a new email. It was from Raina, requesting a meeting in two days to discuss 'her next extracurricular project.' Jemma took another deep breath. She could only hope that they had changed their minds about killing Quake and this would be a meeting about a symposium for her to attend. 

Jemma rolled her eyes at herself. As if her life could ever be that normal.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jemma checked back in with Daisy the day of her meeting. She made sure to go in the lull between the morning rush and the lunch rush so she would have time to grill Daisy on the compound she gave her. That was definitely the only reason she was checking in today. Not because every time she talked to Daisy, her chest felt fluttery and her vines started doing a weird, wiggly dance. 

Still, Jemma had to wait in line behind a lady with an expression like she had just bit into something sour berate the manager while Daisy stood next to him and texted, looking thoroughly unimpressed. 

When the lady was finally satisfied with her yelling and moved on, Jemma sidled up to the counter.

“Well, you’re looking much better,” she commented, noting Daisy’s scratches. In the two days since she had been in, the red, inflamed cuts had faded into tiny pink lines across Daisy’s cheekbone. They probably wouldn’t even scar at this point. 

“Yeah, whatever you gave me was magic,” Daisy replied. “What was in that, by the way?”

Jemma shrugged. “Just a bit of general antiseptic and some experimental extracts. Nothing too mysterious.” 

“Huh. Strange.”

Jemma frowned. “Why?”

“Well, at first I thought I was having a bad reaction to it, because it felt really weird and tingly.  And then for awhile I couldn’t use my…arms. They just kind of felt weird, but it wore off pretty quickly,” Daisy said with a shrug.

Then, Jemma saw the purplish bruises up Daisy’s arms and gasped. “What happened? That didn’t happen after you used the compound I gave you, did it?”

“What? No!” Daisy tugged her sleeves down over her hand. “Well, yes technically, but it didn’t cause it. I, uh, took a kickboxing class the other night and got my ass handed to me.”

Jemma eyed Daisy. Maybe the compound blocked her powers as well as whatever got into her scratches from Raina. Maybe the blocking of Daisy’s powers directed them back into herself as opposed to out, causing the bruises. 

“Well, at least your cuts are healed, so you don’t need to use it anymore. I didn’t realize there would be such strong side effects,” Jemma muttered. 

“Hey, it worked. I can’t complain about the side effects too much,” Daisy said. “Maybe you’ll let me buy you a drink sometime as a thank you.”

Jemma smiled, in spite of everything inside her saying _don’t encourage her_. “I—“

Her phone chirped a reminder about her meeting with her advisors in ten minutes. And she was an eight minute walk from the campus. 

“Shoot, I’m going to be late for my meeting. I—I have to go, I’m sorry. I’ll talk to you later?” Jemma called on her way out the door. She didn’t pause for Daisy’s reply. It was probably best she didn’t see Daisy’s expression because she was sure Daisy would just think Jemma was blowing her off. 

Unfortunately, she would have to worry about Daisy later, because, if she was late, her advisors were going to kill her. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jemma skidded into Raina’s office with two minutes to spare. She got a raised eyebrow from Quinn, since normally, Jemma was a solid five and a half minutes early. Since Garrett still wasn’t there, no one commented, though. 

Garrett sauntered in three minutes late, earning him a glare from Raina and an exasperated eye roll from Quinn. Great, so everyone’s in a good mood already.

“Now that everyone has elected to show up—” Raina shot another glare at Garrett, who seemed unperturbed, “—we have another issue to attend to: Quake is still alive.”

“You don’t have to remind me of that,” Garrett grumbled. Jemma noticed then that he had a black eye and bandages wrapped around the half of his arm that hadn't been amputated. 

Jemma fidgeted in her seat, before she realized that none of them were looking at her. 

“Apparently, our initial try has failed somehow, so we’re back to the drawing board,” Raina growled. 

Jemma frowned. “I’m sorry, but what was the initial attempt?” She knew she wasn’t included in all the trio’s plans, but since she was originally given this task, she figured they would have let her know if there was a change of plans.

Raina sighed. “One of the only good things to come out of my thorns is that they’re tipped with a low-potency venom. Anything I scratch, within a few days, will burn, itch, and eventually, shrivel up and die. Somehow, Quake got scratched, but didn’t get affected, as Garrett learned last night.”

Jemma’s stomach sank as Garrett recounted his latest altercation with Quake. She didn’t realize that those infected scratches were part of a conscious attempt on Daisy’s life. When she thought of Daisy’s bright smile every morning, Jemma found it hard to feel guilty about interfering. Unfortunately, they weren’t having this meeting just to talk about one failed attempt. 

“Simmons,” Raina spoke up, interrupting Garrett’s graphic story. “You know what this means?”

Jemma gulped. She had a feeling that she did. 

“Good. You’re Option Two and we’re running out of time for more options. We’ve got big plans coming up and we can’t have Quake getting in the way before we’ve gotten started,” Raina finished. 

Jemma was tempted to ask about the 'big plans,' but her throat felt like it was closed up and her mind was reeling with what they were asking her to do. 

Quinn spoke up. “You have one week.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Apparently, her advisors didn’t trust her to come up with a plan in a week, since, two days later, Jemma got a notice of another meeting. Also, a 6-inch long dagger mysterious appeared in the lab with a holster that would snap perfectly onto the belt Fitz built in to her bodysuit. 

Jemma quickly tucked it into a drawer and tried to forget it was there. 

The next day, she went up to Quinn’s office. The whole trio was present, but Raina was, unusually, sitting off to the side with Quinn, giving Garrett the run of this meeting. Garrett laid out a blueprint of a government building downtown that would be their (Jemma’s) stage. 

With a marker, he drew X’s all over the building’s access points and security checkpoints, as well as where valuable documents were stored. She wasn’t actually going in to take anything; she was just causing enough panic and noise to summon Quake. 

“—And then, once you barricade the door, she’ll Supergirl her way to the roof and BAM!” Garrett slapped the table dramatically causing Jemma to nearly fall out of her seat. “If you’re lucky, maybe a news chopper will be there at that point to catch the finishing blow on camera. Then, no one will ever mess with us again.”

Jemma felt sick. Like she was about to be physically ill. She was sure if she looked in a mirror right now, she wouldn't be able to distinguish the color of her face from her vines. 

To disguise this fact, she just nodded along to what Garrett said without a word. Her mind raced through thousands of possibilities of ways to get out of this whole arrangement. All of them ended in death: hers, Fitz’s, her family’s, hundred of stranger’s. 

Quake’s. 

She couldn’t. But she also had to. 

This was the point of no return. So far, she had only robbed a few people and caused some destruction of property. But murder? That was something she could never come back from once done. She would be a super villain now and always. 

She eyed the framed diplomas on Quinn’s wall. Was it worth this? Jemma knew if she backed out of this and somehow didn’t end up dead, there was no way she could start another doctorate anywhere else. She would be blacklisted from every school in the world. How would she continue to do her research, to solve problems? 

To make the world a better place. 

That was why she wanted to go to this school in the first place. She wanted to solve problems in the world in whatever way she could. Her research was supposed to minimize bad things in this world. How could she do that if she was working for people who aimed to create so much bad?

“We’re really counting on you for this, Simmons,” Raina piped up. “We’ve got big things in the works and we can’t put them off anymore.”

This was the second time Raina had brought up their 'big plans.' If Jemma wasn’t already staring at the blueprint of the most abhorrent thing she could think of, she would be inclined to ask what her role would be in those plans. As it was, she couldn’t stomach knowing who else was getting hurt or robbed or killed while she sat back and did nothing. 

She thought of Fitz down in their private lab, pounding out as many projects as he could. She thought of the burly security guards that led them to the lab the first day and knew, despite Garrett’s assurance, that they could access the lab whenever they wanted and do whatever they wanted with no witnesses. 

She thought of Daisy. A virtual stranger to Jemma, but another good-hearted person just trying to make the world slightly less evil. 

She didn’t know if it was intentional or not, but Jemma suddenly realized that she was sitting in the lowest chair in the room. Garrett towered over the desk in front of her. Raina was now leaning against the doorframe. Quinn was hovering by the windows.

All eyes were on Jemma and all exits were blocked. She was physically and metaphorically trapped. 

“So?”

“I’ll do it.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The designated day finally showed up. Jemma spent the day frantically testing and retesting her plants, hoping that maybe they wouldn’t actually be ready and The Plan would have to be postponed. 

Unfortunately, the one time she wanted failure, Jemma got success. Her plants were responding perfectly to everything she wanted them to do. She wondered if she could get away with lighting them on fire and pretending it was an accident. 

That afternoon, the two plants were carefully transferred to nondescript containers and transported to the roof of the building Jemma was supposed to infiltrate. 

She spent the rest of the day avoiding contact with anyone. She didn’t want to see Fitz because he would ask for updates on Jemma’s super villain activities and Jemma didn’t think she could manage lying to him right now. 

She briefly considered making a stop at the coffee shop, but that thought was quickly thrown out. She knew if she had to make polite conversation with Da— with her target— the last bit of her resolve would crumble.

Jemma camped out in her apartment until it was nearing dusk and then suited up. She slid the dagger out of the sock drawer she had moved it to once the plan came together and snapped it onto her belt. It wasn't overly large, but the weight of it suddenly felt like it would drag Jemma into the ground. 

She tugged on a hoodie and sweatpants over her suit and slid out the fire escape toward the roof. 

Right on time, Quinn’s helicopter appeared and hovered low enough that she could grab on and pull herself up. 

The first of many horrible plans of this evening happened right away. As soon as they approached the building, Quinn handed her a rope that was tethered to one of the handles in the interior of the helicopter and given a three-second countdown. 

On three, she jumped. 

 _Keep your feet straight out as soon as you jump. If the rest of your body hits the window first it’s gonna hurt_ , Garrett’s voice echoed in her mind.  

She clung to the rope with all her might as she swung through the air. In the split second before she hit the window, she looked toward the ground a dozen stories below her. She didn’t have time to worry about the height before her feet were crashing through the nearest window. 

_Entering the building on one of the middle floors will limit the amount of security you have to bypass and shorten the distance you have to cross to get to the roof._

Jemma let the rope slip out of her hands as she tumbled through the window. 

Jemma hissed as she felt a sharp sting in her hands. A thin cut stretched across her palm from landing on all the broken glass. She was pretty sure she felt a matching one on her cheek. This was one of the many ways Jemma could tell this plan was entirely concocted by Garrett; he was more concerned with _style_ than what was considered practical. Yet another reason why this was the worst plan Jemma had ever been involved in. 

Outside the window, Quinn’s helicopter sped away. At the other end of the hall, Jemma heard panicked voices and the thunder of footsteps rounding the corner. 

Before they made it into her line of sight, Jemma pulled out a device stolen from Fitz and slapped it on the keypad on the nearest door. It whirred angrily until the keypad flashed red and the floor’s alarm sounded. That ought to attract some attention. 

The first group of guards was small, only having three. Jemma lunged towards them, landing a punch to the first one’s nose and knocked him back a few paces. The other two spread out as much as they could in the narrow hallway.

The second tried to grab her wrist, but she slipped out of his grasp and kicked him in the knee. The third managed to get behind Jemma and loop his arms under hers to try to immobilize her. One of her vines snapped around his neck and squeezed just tight enough that he panicked and released her to try to claw it off. Once free, she ducked down and flung him into the second guard and knocked them both out cold. 

The first guard made a lunge for Jemma again. She jumped over the unconscious forms of the other two guards and snapped a vine around the first’s wrist before he could move. 

_Quake monitors police dispatch in her free time. That’s how she always knows where to find us._

“Change your radio to the frequency of the police dispatchers,” Jemma commanded. The guard’s eyes went blank and he reached for his radio. “Now, call for backup.”

“This is Officer Jones of the Federal Building, requesting immediate backup—“

“Sound a little more distressed,” Jemma whispered. His voice was rather deadpan and didn’t sound too urgent. 

“—requesting immediate backup.” the guard’s voice kicked up an octave. “There is a powered intruder, repeat: powered intruder.”

Once the call went out, Jemma pulled off the guard and he fell to the ground. She found the stairs to the next floor up and sprinted up them. 

She only had one more floor to ascend before reaching the roof and this one had a larger guard presence. Still, Jemma’s intense training with Scarlotti seemed to be holding out and she managed to disarm them long enough to slip into the next stairwell. It helped that she had around 20 limbs to work with. 

She barricaded the stairwell doors and headed to the roof. There was only one access point to the roof and it was through this door, so she shouldn’t have any unwelcome intruders. 

Once she passed through the door to the roof, she snapped another one of Fitz’s devices to it to instantly weld the door shut, like it had at the bank. 

Now, all she could do was wait. 

The sun was just setting on the western horizon, casting everything in a purple and orange glow. The clouds shifted slowly, giving the impression of a watercolor painting coming to life. She could see the entire city and even some of the outlying suburbs. Jemma would have admired the view if she wasn’t focused completely on what she came here to do. 

She saw plants 3.1 and 3.2 tucked into boxes the same color and shape of the vents on the roof. If she didn’t know what to look for, she would have been none the wiser that they were even out of place. 

Jemma fished out the tiny electrodes she designed and stuck them to her temples. She concentrated on experimentally moving the vines of the plants across the roof from her. It was much more difficult than moving the ones on her back, which acted more like an extra set of limbs. These new ones were more like moving puppets with strings made out of slinkys. 

When she was confident they were obeying her thoughts, Jemma tucked them back away and waited. 

The distant sound of police sirens was all Jemma could hear from this height. All the security guards were still stuck a floor below her, so she couldn’t hear what they were doing to try to break down the door. Jemma hoped that maybe Daisy would be taking a night off from being Quake and wouldn’t show up. It wouldn’t be Jemma’s fault if she couldn’t complete her mission then.

 

Unfortunately, fate was not on Jemma’s side and she saw a shadow streak up the side of the building. The roof trembled as Quake slowed her descent. She landed and her eyes found Jemma straightaway. 

Quake frowned slightly, more in confusion than anger. “Really? You graduated from jewel thief to, what, stealing people’s mortgages?” 

Jemma rolled her eyes. Just a few more feet. 

“So, where are the rest of your cronies? I thought you were all in this together?” Quake teased. She strolled a few steps forward. Just a little closer. 

“They’re taking the night off,” Jemma replied. “This job is only for me.”

“Really? Surprised they trust you that much. They don’t seem to give you anything important to do. It’s almost like they don’t treat you as part of the team,” Quake said. 

That much was true. Except in this instance. Quake took a few more steps. Perfect. 

“So, what are you really here for?” Quake asked, sounding bored. 

Jemma locked eyes with Quake. “You.”

Plants 3.1 and 3.2 snapped to life. Vines coiled around Quake’s elbows. Next, they wrapped around her knees, locking them together and forcing Quake to her knees. A sick part of Jemma’s mind thought she liked Daisy in this position, but she pushed it away. 

“Impressive,” Quake murmured. She scrunched up her face in concentration and then hissed in pain. She flexed her hands and glared in confusion. 

“They’re coated with a compound that temporarily blocks your powers. I wouldn’t try to use them or you’ll just hurt yourself,” Jemma informed her. She was hoping to sound aloof and in charge, but she genuinely didn’t want to cause Daisy any pain. She would be doing enough of that shortly, anyway. 

Quake suddenly looked concerned. “Okay, that’s new. At least this gives me time to talk to you without having to beat you up first.”

Jemma narrowed her eyes and sauntered across the roof towards Quake. 

A distant boom drew both Quake’s and Jemma’s attention. A few blocks away, a cloud of smoke was clearing from another skyscraper. Police cars swarmed the area below it and, above, Jemma recognized the Quinn helicopter that dropped her off dangling a rope down for the forms of Raina and Garrett to climb. Garrett appeared to have a large bag of something tucked under his arm. Jemma could practically hear his maniacal cackling from here. 

Jemma frowned. They hadn’t mentioned doing another job tonight. They said they would be on standby to come swoop in early in case anything went south for Jemma. Instead, they were using her as a distraction, to both temporarily and permanently get rid of their nemesis. 

Daisy growled and squirmed against the vines restraining her. She snorted when she saw Jemma’s face. “Wow, must be rough to not be included in the big plans. They’ve really got you in the minor leagues still.” 

Jemma glared. Daisy continued when Jemma didn’t stop her. “Listen, if you’re trapped or you don’t want to work with those guys, you don’t have to. I work with an organization that helps people like you and me. They can help you and protect you from whatever you’re caught up in. You have a choice.”

Jemma paused. That was surprising. She always pegged Quake as the solo vigilante-type who never needed help from anyone. Though this ‘organization’ she mentioned could just as easily be the police. 

Something nudged Jemma’s hand, but she ignored it, wanting to hear more of what Quake had to say. Quake very obviously noticed it, though, and her eyes went wide. 

Jemma looked down. One of her vines had retrieved the dagger from its holster and was helpfully trying to press it into her hand. Jemma rolled it into her palm and stared at it. 

Quake noticed the glint of the metal now in Jemma’s hands and started struggling harder. 

“Okay, seriously, you don’t have to do this,” Quake pleaded. “I can help you. We can help. You can use your powers to do something good.”

Jemma took a few steps closer to Quake. She had to do it. She couldn’t go back now. Her advisors would go after her family, her friends, anyone she loved. She had to do this one thing for them and then could worry about squirming out of their grasp. 

Quake was visibly panicked. Jemma didn’t think she had ever seen so much fear in her eyes. “Okay, I know you said I don’t know what kind of person you are, but I know you’re not a bad person. I can see it in you. You haven’t hurt anyone yet, and that’s not an accident. Quinn, Raina, Garrett. They’ve hurt hundreds of people, but not you! Because you’re a good person!” 

Quake--no, Daisy was practically begging at Jemma’s feet. Jemma tried to tune out her words. It was only making it harder for what she had to do. 

Logically, it was so easy. Aim for the heart, the guts, the throat. Jemma knew the human body like the back of her hand. It would be so easy.

Emotionally, Jemma couldn’t separate herself from the _person_ in front of her. Quake was trapped and at her mercy, but all Jemma could see was the friendly barista who flirted with her and gave her free snacks. Beyond that, Jemma could see the superhero, whose only crime was trying to make things a little less dark and to help people. Even people who had a knife pointed at her. 

Jemma gripped the dagger a little tighter and glanced towards the building her advisors had just robbed. The helicopter had disappeared into the distance and not reappeared. Quinn was supposed to circle back and pick Jemma up once ‘the job’ was done, but it appeared she was on her own. 

She looked back at Daisy. She had given up trying to squirm free and was staring at Jemma with wide, pleading eyes. 

Jemma wondered if Daisy was right. Was she a good person? Does a good person compromise their entire moral compass for the approval of three terrible people? 

Does a good person use their scientific mind and research to commit terrible crimes?

Jemma’s eyes fell on her plants, the ones she worked tirelessly to create for months. They were still tightly squeezing Daisy’s arms together. Was this really their intended purpose?

Jemma felt her resolve crumble into dust. This wasn’t her. No degree or fancy lab equipment or even a lifetime of charity work could make this go away if she went through with it. 

The dagger slid out of her hands and clattered against the roof. 

She turned and ran. Jemma sprinted towards the back side of the building and jumped. 

There were no police cars on this side, as expected. The city’s police department really needed to work on their siege tactics. 

But there was a gutter. Jemma shot out a vine and wrapped it around the gutter. She yanked herself closer to it and grabbed it tighter with her hands and all her vines to slow her descent. 

Her hands burned from the friction, but she held on as tight as she could. 

She hit the ground just slightly too hard to be comfortable, but immediately jumped to her feet and scanned the back alley. Her eyes found a sewer cover. It wasn’t ideal, but it would have to do for now. 

She hoisted the cover, slipped into the sewer, and swung herself onto the concrete ledge. 

Jemma slid to the ground and tried to catch her breath. Her hands were still shaking and, once her weight was off them, her knees felt wobbly too. She peeled the electrodes off her temples and tossed them into the scummy water rushing by. Hopefully, the plants would relax now and Daisy could get out of there before the police broke through to the roof. 

Jemma buried her face in her hands and tried to breathe deeply. She was so screwed. 

 


	11. Chapter 11

“Well, I can’t say we’re surprised, but we are very disappointed,” Raina said. 

Of all the ways Jemma was anticipating this meeting going, a _lecture_ was not one of them. A newspaper lay on the desk in front of Jemma with a headline that read ‘ _Quake Thwarts Federal Building Robbery’_ blaring across it. Jemma’s three advisors stared her down with a demeanor of disapproving managers about to write up a minimum wage employee for not hitting a quota, rather than supervillains admonishing her for not murdering their archrival. 

Jemma sighed and looked at the floor, trying her best to look scolded. 

The first thing she had done, once she made her way home through the sewer, was to check on Fitz. She became frantic for a moment, not being able to find him in his apartment or in the lab, but once she returned to her apartment, there was a small note stuck to the door:

_Simmons- This is the week I’m visiting my mum for her birthday. I knew you’d forget. I stuck a key to Mrs. Oswald’s place under your door, because I’m supposed to be feeding her cat this week (but I forgot, too). I’ll buy you dinner if you do it for me. -Fitz_

Jemma scoured the note for an hour, looking for any indication that it was written under duress, but nothing looked out of the ordinary. 

After Jemma was assured that Fitz was far away from her advisors’ wrath, she wasn’t so concerned when they called her to their office for this meeting. At this point, she didn’t care what they did to her. 

So far, all they were doing to her was frowning. Well, everyone but Garrett. Garrett had the deepest scowl across his face that Jemma had ever seen and, when Jemma walked in, he sounded like he was suggesting torture methods. 

Jemma ignored him. She had seen the schematics of his anatomy that Fitz left laying around and knew exactly where all his weak points were. 

“Unfortunately, we don’t have any more time to waste. We need to get this project on the road,” Quinn spoke up, seeming satisfied with Jemma abashed expression. 

Raina sighed dramatically, “I know, it just would have been so much easier with Quake out of the way.”

“It would have, but our materials are already degrading. We need to act fast,” he replied. 

Raina shrugged and replaced her scolding expression with a bloodthirsty grin. “Now, you get to help us with a more fun job.”

Quinn laid out a massive roll of blueprints, schematics of a complex machine, and strategic points throughout the city. Jemma recognized all the elements of it that she had helped retrieve: the diamond, cut into four prisms and split between the four copies of the machine; the gold and silver from the nursing home, melted down and hammered into thin strips of foil to conduct the laser that was being filtered through the diamond; some rare metal that was reported stolen the same night Jemma was meant to kill Quake. She even recognized a few smaller pieces of hardware from blueprints that Fitz had been working from for weeks, probably not knowing they were being used for this machine.

The only component that she didn’t recognize was a round container that appeared to plug into the top and had multiple currents running through it. 

“What exactly is this part for?” Jemma asked, pointing to the sphere. 

Raina grinned so wide she looked almost manic. “That is the pinnacle of your contribution to this project.”

Raina flipped to a different schematic sheet. “Once we found out about your little mind-control power, we were inspired. It could be used for so many things, but we needed to figure out a way to harness and replicate it. Thankfully, you figured it out for us.”

Jemma blanched and remembered the vial of spores from her new plants that she had given them. The spheres in each machine were filled with a distilled version of the spores and wired to replicate and disperse once the laser reflected into it. 

“Then, we had to get creative,” Raina continued. “What’s the point of mind-control if you can’t use it on a mass scale?”

Quinn piped up. “So, we had your engineering friend help us whip up some crucial pieces and had you help steal the rest of what we needed.”

“Having you do it ensured Quake wouldn’t put together all our heists and figure out our plan,” Garrett added, “Also, it seems to have proven a decent distraction for her.”

“It would have been easier to accomplish this task if Quake was completely out of the picture, but we built in some safeguards. Just in case,” Raina finished. 

“Once we activate these, there will be no one in the city who can resist us. We’ll have a million more henchman to get us what we need to make more of these little babies, and who knows? Maybe we’ll have the entire country in our control by the end of the year,” Quinn said. 

Jemma gulped. In just one week, she had been dragged from petty theft to attempted murder and now world domination. No degree was worth this. 

She had to find a way to stop them, but the only person she knew could help, Jemma had threatened to kill the night before. 

She was going to have to get creative. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The minute Jemma got back to her apartment, she started packing. The Plan was set for three days from now. After that, Jemma knew that, one way or another, she wasn't coming back here.

She stuffed a few necessities in a backpack and threw it near the door. The rest of her items she start shoving in boxes. Luckily, she had been in this apartment less than a year so she still had all her boxes tucked in a closet. She piled up her things in categorized boxes, stuck a label on each one, and scratched Donate below it. 

She sorted out a few sentimental items and put them in a separate box which she labelled _Fitz_ and placed it off to the side. He could come get it whenever he got back from visiting his mom. 

At which point Jemma would probably be dead.

The realization hit her like a speeding train and Jemma had to sit down and catch her breath. She had three days left to live. And if she didn't come up with a foolproof plan in those three days, a lot of people could get hurt.

If she managed to stop her advisors plot, they would almost definitely kill her. If she didn't manage to stop it, they would know she tried and they would definitely kill her.

If Quake happened to show up, either Quake would kill her or her advisors would, for not taking care of Quake when she had the chance.

Jemma’s advisors hadn't said exactly how they would use their new city-wide mind control abilities, but Jemma could imagine. They could get rid of anyone they wanted, do anything they wanted. No law enforcement or bureaucratic agency would be able to stop them from diverting whatever funds they wanted to expand their influence. 

Once that happened, there would be no stopping them. 

At this point, Jemma didn’t care if she spent the rest of her life unemployed if it meant she could foil this plot. 

She hastily wrote out a letter to her parents (it was hard for her to word ‘I got involved in supervillainy, but changed my mind so now I’m either dead or on the run’ tactfully in a letter, so she just stuck with the basics) and tucked it in the _Fitz_ box. 

Then she wrote a letter to Fitz, mostly filled with instructions on cleaning out her apartment and how to get away from her advisors, but also with a lengthy apology. 

She taped her spare key to the letter and slipped it under his door for him to find when he got home. 

She glanced around the apartment. It looked just like it had when she first moved in; boxes piled everywhere, kitchen cabinets empty and hanging open. 

There was no time to be sentimental. She had to come up with a plan. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the time the day came, Jemma had concocted and thrown out at least 1000 plans. None of them would work. She didn’t have enough information about the machine to figure out how to deactivate it, which was probably on purpose. 

Her phone chirped across the room. She was already suited up and just pressed her mask on before she opened the message. She already knew who it was. She could hear the blades of the helicopter whipping through the air. 

“Your ride’s here, Vine Girl.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the kinda filler chapter, but I stuff's going down next chapter and I wanted that one on its own. Be prepared. (Next ones also gonna be the second to last chapter so be prepared for that as well).  
> And as always enjoy!


	12. Chapter 12

The helicopter hovered low over the rooftop. Garrett jumped out first and waited for Jemma to hand down the first of the machines. How she got roped into being the moving crew she didn't know.  She wrapped half of her vines around the base of the machine and the other half around the seat in the helicopter to keep herself from getting pulled out of the helicopter. Those machine were _heavy._

Once Garrett and the machine were situated on the rooftop, he waved them off and they flew to the next one.

Jemma’s was apparently the second one.

She lowered the machine onto the corner of the building and Quinn landed the helicopter long enough to hook it up for her. Raina, in full thorny regalia,  waited inside and appeared uninterested in the interaction on the roof, but Jemma noticed a gun resting on the seat beside her that Raina kept a hand near.

Quinn poked a few buttons and the display on the tower lit up. It was completely self-contained. No wires were sticking out anywhere that was easily accessible, so Jemma scratched that off her plans. The base was a solid, steel cylinder with no visible seams. The top was clear, so Jemma could see the little sphere of her spores resting beneath the cone shaped mouth at the very top. The whole thing stood about as tall as Jemma.

Attached just below the clear glass part was a large screen and keyboard. Beside that was a smaller blue panel with a grid printed on it. Jemma peered over Quinn’s shoulder to see if she could figure out what he was doing.

“Okay, should be good to go. Now, put your hand on that little blue pad,” Quinn instructed.

Jemma hesitated. She wasn’t sure what that would do, but it wasn’t like she could refuse.

She reluctantly placed her hand on the pad.

A tiny padlock icon on the far left of the screen unlocked and the formerly blank screen popped up a dozen little blue icons and a countdown for 30 minutes. The base of the machine whirred lowly.

“The computer is configurated to your handprint. It won’t work unless your hand is on that pad. You shouldn’t have to do anything, but, on the off chance something goes wrong, you can unlock it and override the error,” Quinn said. “Then, once, they all warm up, they’ll automatically sync and activate and the hard part will be over.”

Jemma smiled tersely and nodded. Quinn adjusted his tie and his tiny mask, climbed back into the helicopter, and took off. Jemma waited until they were out of sight..

Once the helicopter had disappeared into the horizon, she bolted back over to the machine. She scoured the outside, looking for any weak points. The whole structure looked airtight. Even the glass on top looked bulletproof.

She darted around to the screen and placed her hand on the pad. Instantly, the display lit up and she started pressing buttons. Nearly all the buttons were various status bars; core temperature, synced devices, RPMs. The countdown stayed in the top corner of her screen as she tapped away. One was a manual override button. When Jemma pressed it, the entire screen filled with code.

She growled and slapped the display in frustration. Of all the technological skills Jemma dabbled in, she had never touched coding. Sure, she knew basic HTML to format her reports, but anything more complicated than an underline was out of the question.

And this was a _lot_ more complicated. Jemma went back to the menu screen to try to find a different option.

Before she could select one, she was knocked off her feet by a shockwave that blasted her across the roof.

When she looked for the source of the shockwave, she saw Quake striding across the rooftop towards the machine. Jemma hadn’t even heard her show up. Quake started tapping at the keyboard trying to get it to do something.

Jemma groaned. Luckily most of her back was covered by her suit, but her vines took the brunt of the damage from skidding across the roof and they _stung_.

She pushed herself up and glared at Quake. “No witty banter today?”

Quake shot her a glare back. “Witty banter is reserved for people who haven’t tried to kill me in the past week.

“Well, I obviously didn’t try very hard,” Jemma muttered under her breath.

Across the roof, Quake held her hands out towards the machine and let loose a shockwave. Jemma internally cheered that maybe she wouldn’t even have to stop the Plan, Quake would do all the work.

No such luck. When the shockwave hit the device, it glowed blue for a moment, then blasted the shock back at Quake.

Jemma tried not to be a little self-satisfied when Quake skidded across the roof on her back, like Jemma had done moments before. It meant she was back to square one on stopping this. Her advisors really had built in some safeguards.

Quake dusted herself off and grumbled at the machine.

Then she turned her attention back to Jemma.

“Tell me how to stop it,” Quake demanded.

“Not likely.” _But also not impossible._

Quake growled and launched herself into the air. Jemma initially thought she was taking off, but then noticed Quake descending directly towards her, fist raised and face scrunched up in a glare. Jemma only had time to think, _whoa_ ,  before Daisy’s fist collided with her face.

Luckily, adrenaline and Jemma’s recent training kicked in after that.

Daisy--No, _Quake_ aimed for another punch which Jemma blocked with a vine and then countered with an elbow to Quake’s chin.

Jemma countered a flurry of punches and kicks from Quake as well as getting in a few of her own. Whoever trained Quake in hand-to-hand combat was insanely good. Jemma got the feeling that whoever they were, they could obliterate Scarlotti and barely break a sweat.

While Jemma blocked a roundhouse kick from Quake with her arms, Quake went in for another punch. Jemma’s vines kicked in and snapped around her wrist before she could make contact.

Quake glared at them and twisted her wrist so she was grabbing the handful of vines, instead of the other way around. She yanked sharply, which made Jemma stumble off-balance and roughly jarred her spine where they attached.

Jemma’s vision went white with pain for a moment and she gasped. Her back was to Quake now, so she harshly jammed her elbow right below Quake’s ribs in retaliation.

Quake hissed and doubled over in pain and released Jemma’s vines. _Guess we’re both going for weak spots_ , Jemma thought. Jemma squared up and prepared for another attack.

Quake launched herself at Jemma again, staying low this time, and tackled her.

Jemma let out an _oof_ as her back collided with the rooftop _again._

Quake wasted no time. She kneeled on either side of Jemma’s waist, pinning most of her vines to the ground, and pinned Jemma’s shoulders with one hand while raising the other in a fist.

“Just give up,” Quake panted. “Tell me how to turn off the device, or a lot of people are going to get hurt.”

If only it were that easy. Jemma had to keep up her ‘villain’ attitude for a bit longer, or Quake would probably think it was a trap. And Jemma was really tired of being punched by the girl she had a crush on.

A terrible idea popped into Jemma’s head and her mouth started moving before her brain could catch up.

“Fine, I’ll tell you how to turn it off. But only on one condition,” Jemma hissed.

“And what would that be?” Quake asked, exasperatedly.

“You have to kiss me. On the mouth.”

Daisy’s face went from an angry grimace to utterly confused in a split second. “I-I….what?!”

Well, Jemma should have expected that.Jemma didn’t know what she was thinking. She rolled her eyes, mostly at herself, but partially at the blush creeping up Daisy’s cheeks as she stuttered out more questions. At least Daisy was caught off guard for a moment.

“We don’t have time for this,” Jemma growled. She wrapped a free vine around Daisy’s raised fist and yanked just hard enough to toss her off. She pushed herself off the ground and marched over to the device. Fifteen minutes left.

She heard a whispered, “Holy shit,” behind her and glanced back at Daisy, who was staring at the plant on her back. Jemma shot her a glare and looked over the machine once more.

Jemma groaned. “I’ve already tried everything I can think of to shut this thing down, but they’ve built in too many safeguards.”

“Wait.” Daisy pushed herself off the ground. “You don’t want this plan to succeed?”

Jemma huffed. Now is as good a time as any to be honest. “I never wanted any of this.” She gestured to herself. “I just got sucked in because getting a doctorate is expensive and my advisors happened to be the biggest supervillians in the city.”

“You’re doing all this….for a degree?” Daisy asked.

Jemma glared. “Why we’re here is not important at the moment. In fifteen- fourteen minutes, this and the three others will be warmed up and disperse a mind-controlling substance into the air strong enough to control the entire city. So unless you know how to reprogram the override code and hack the device…”

Jemma trailed off when she noticed the wicked grin creeping up Daisy’s face. “Did you say hack?” Daisy asked.

Jemma’s heart lurched. “Do you know code?”

“It’s kinda my thing.” Daisy shrugged. “But there’s no way to access the programming on this device, I tried.”

Jemma smirked. “It only unlocks if my hand is on the sensor.”

They both darted to the device. Jemma slapped her hand down on the pad, jabbed the override button, and shifted to the side so Daisy could work.

Daisy scoured the code for a moment and then started frantically typing. She deleted a few lines here and there and punched in a few of her own, her eyes flicking between the screen and the keyboard. Jemma tried to stare at the code and not Daisy.

A few times, her vines started defensively creeping up her shoulders and towards Daisy, but Jemma yanked them back. Well, the last time she and Daisy were this close and not trying to beat each other up was right after the accident, so it wasn't an unfair assumption that her vines would need to defend her. Jemma was pretty sure Daisy’s eyes flicked over to them once or twice, trying to determine if this was a trap.

Finally, Daisy hit the last key and the low whirring of the device stopped.

“We did it!” Daisy announced.

“And I’m officially dead,” Jemma muttered to herself. She knew her advisors would see the second her device went offline and they would be livid.

“Now, we just have to catch the other three,” Daisy said, not hearing Jemma.

“I have something,” Jemma realized. “It’ll block Raina’s powers, probably not for long, but long enough to apprehend her.”  She ran over to the bag she had stashed and pulled out the ICER.

“Whoa!” Daisy held her hands out.

Jemma rolled her eyes. “Relax, I’ve played nice this long.”

She pulled out the vial of the blocking compound she had accidentally tested on Daisy and snapped it into the gun. She then flipped it over and handed it to Daisy.

“I’ve only got the one, so I hope you’re a good shot,” Jemma said.

Daisy cocked the gun and pointed it at Jemma.

“It won’t work on me, so please don’t waste it,” Jemma said.

“Why won’t it work on you? You have powers,” Daisy asked.

“They’re not the same as you and Raina.”

“What do you mean, me and Raina? How are we the same?”

Jemma groaned in frustration. “If you want to catch them, you need to stop asking questions and go?

“How do I know it’ll work and you aren’t just trying to get rid of me so you can run?” Daisy probed.

“Where would I go?” Jemma replied exasperatedly, “Now, for Garrett, most of his biology is electrically powered, so just give his system a high-powered shock and it'll temporarily shut down. Quinn, just point a gun at him and he’ll be on his knees, begging for amnesty.”

“But--”

“Daisy, will you just trust me?!” Jemma cried.

The silence that fell over the rooftop was deafening. The only sound Jemma could hear was the honking of car horns far below. Daisy was so still that the only sign that she wasn’t suddenly a cardboard cut out was the slight movement of her hair blowing in the breeze.

“How do you know my name?” She asked, he voice threateningly low.

Jemma gulped. It was only then that she realized her slip. “It-It’s...not important. You should go or they’ll get away.”

Daisy advanced on Jemma. “How. Do you know. My name?”

Daisy was inches away now, staring at Jemma with a combination of anger and fear in her eyes.

Jemma sighed. She dug her fingers under the sides of her mask and tossed it to the ground. She met Daisy’s eyes with the same ferocity Daisy had before.

“Because your Secret Identity disguise is terrible,” Jemma replied.

Daisy didn’t say anything, she just gaped. Her eyes searched Jemma’s face, as if willing it to be some kind of trick. Jemma just let her process.

Daisy took a step backwards and put a hand up to her ear. “Coulson, I’ve got something you might want.”

Jemma furrowed her brow. Who was Coulson?

Before Jemma could ask, hands were on her face and lips pressed against her own. All of her senses were suddenly filled with Daisy; touch, sight, smell, whatever that little tingly one in her stomach was called.

Daisy’s hands were firm, but gentle. Jemma swore she felt Daisy’s thumbs softly caressing her cheeks, but she was more distracted by her mouth. Her lips were so soft, pressing into Jemma’s with urgency.

It was over in a moment, though it felt like a lifetime to Jemma. Still, Daisy was stepping away too soon.

“I owed you that,” Daisy said, nodding towards the stagnant device behind them.

A whirring noise in the distance answered her earlier question. When it sounded like it was right overheard, Jemma glanced around but didn’t see anything. The next moment, a small jet flickered into view above Daisy that made half the noise of the helicopter and seemed twice as agile.

And had way more firepower, if the massive guns pointed at her were any indication.

“Stand down! She’s with us,” Daisy hurriedly shouted into what was apparently some kind of earpiece.

So, Daisy was being serious when she talked about that organization that she knew.

The guns powered down and the jet perched on the edge of the building and a cargo door opened up into a platform.

A dark-haired, middle-aged man stepped onto the platform in tactical gear. He shot a suspicious look over to Jemma, but she was sure she didn’t look too intimidating, as she was still stunned by that kiss.

Daisy hopped up the platform, handed him the ICER, and seemed to be relaying the instructions Jemma had given her. The man, Coulson probably, nodded and retreated into the plane. The moment Daisy was off the platform, the cargo door went up and the jet shot in the direction Jemma had last seen Raina and Quinn headed.

The now-familiar whipping of helicopter blades behind Jemma knocked her out of her reverie.

It was Quinn. The helicopter was headed straight for Jemma’s rooftop.

“Get down!” Daisy cried. She lunged at Jemma and knocked her behind an air-conditioner right before the bullets started pinging off the rooftop. He was too high up to tell for certain, but Jemma was sure Quinn was screaming profanities at her while shooting.

“May? You’re up,” Daisy said into her headset.

Another jet whirred overhead and pursued Quinn’s helicopter. It seemed like he was going to try to run, but as soon as the giant guns on the jet locked onto him, he set the helicopter down on a rooftop a few blocks away.

Neither Jemma nor Daisy said a thing as they caught their breath. Jemma did a quick once-over and determined the neither of them had been hit.

“I hate that guy,” Daisy grumbled. She unconsciously rubbed the spot on her abdomen that Jemma had jabbed earlier. There must be a story there.

Daisy stood and helped Jemma to her feet.

Daisy held up a hand to her earpiece to listen to what someone else was saying and smiled. One of the jets circled back towards them and slowly landed in the middle of the roof.

“They’re all in SHIELD custody now and I feel like we have enough evidence to put them away for good,” Daisy informed Jemma. “So, you can probably get back to your old life. As long as you don’t fall back into your villainous ways.” Daisy smirked.

Jemma chuckled. That was one weight off her back at least, knowing her advisors were going to be somewhere secure for awhile.

“The offer still stands, you know,” Daisy fidgeted with her hands while she spoke.

“Offer?”

“The one about coming with me. To SHIELD. They’re good people. They can help you, keep you safe,” Daisy clarified.

“Oh,” Jemma replied, lamely.

The cargo door of the jet opened again and this time, a handful of agents emerged and marched over to the device to disassemble it.

Daisy strolled over to the open door, cast a look to Jemma, and held out a hand.

“Last chance. Do you want to come with?”

Jemma glanced over the skyline of her city. Did she want to go back to her old life? Would she even know what her old life was anymore? It had been awhile since she’d had a ‘normal life’ where she didn’t have to worry about what morally compromising thing she would have to do next. Now, she could go back to that simple life, get a normal degree, and a normal job.

She turned back to Daisy. A girl who can make earthquakes was inviting her to join a secret organization because she technically has super powers.

Jemma didn’t think she could go back to her old life if she tried.

She jogged over to the jet and took Daisy’s hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In every fic there's THE chapter that I'm dying to get to write. This was it for this one. Hope you guys like it cuz it was super fun to write! One more chapter (at least?) of this baby! (Unless y'all have some epilogue ideas ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ send them over to my tumblr if you do sad-trash-writing <3


	13. Chapter 13

Jemma felt a sudden sympathy for all the creatures and plants she had experimented on in her years working in labs. She never knew being a subject of study could be so unpleasant. 

For what seemed like the hundredth time today, someone jabbed a needle into her back. Jemma tensed up to try to keep herself from twitching. One of her vines jerked up to wring the lab tech’s neck, but Jemma slapped her palm down over it and pinned it to the table she was perched on. 

Jemma tried to focus on the lab equipment in the SHIELD facility, rather than all the people in lab coats who were staring at her. There were things in this lab that Jemma had never even _seen_. Half of them she couldn’t even tell the function of. The shiny counters and shiny machines and shiny holographic projections made the lab Jemma and Fitz had been given look like an underfunded community college. 

Unfortunately, Jemma could only ogle the equipment for so long, before her eyes found another wide-eyed lab tech struggling to look like they weren’t staring. Jemma clutched the cardigan covering her chest a little tighter and stared at the tile floor. 

“You feel like a pincushion yet?” a familiar voice asked behind Jemma. 

Daisy sauntered into the lab just as the lab tech extracted the needle and told Jemma she could put her shirt back on. 

It was weird for Jemma to see Daisy this way. It was like she was in a half-way point between Quake and undercover-Daisy from the coffee shop. She didn’t have the long wig on, she had no dark makeup, but was wearing casual clothes, instead of her black tactical suit. It was a strange sight, but not entirely unwelcome; Daisy looked completely at ease here.

“I’m starting to understand why no one signs up to help with clinical testing trials,” Jemma replied, tugging her cardigan back on. 

Daisy chuckled. “Well, they should be about done with their tests by now. They just want to know what’s going on with—”

Daisy trailed off and gestured vaguely to Jemma’s back. 

“How did that even happen, if you don’t mind me asking?” Daisy asked.  

“Do you remember that lab explosion caused by Raina a few months ago?” Jemma prompted.

“Ye— Oh shit, that’s where I recognized you from,” Daisy said. “I remember that I tried to find you to check up on you after the explosion, but the hospital that the paramedic said they took you to had no record of you.”

Jemma cringed. “Yes, that was my first task out of the hospital.”

“Wow, I’m impressed,” Daisy said. “Hospital servers are notoriously difficult to get into.”

“Well, I had some help,” Jemma admitted. 

Daisy raised her eyebrows. “Is this 'help’ the same person who made all your gadgets? Because we might need their contact information. They could be very helpful,” Daisy said. “I’m surprised about your powers, though. When I first saw you, I assumed you were an Inhuman, like me…and Raina, apparently. Your powers seemed too…natural to be an accident.”

Jemma shrugged. “The plant itself was something I had been working on for awhile. It’s mostly doing its intended purpose, but it’s not meant to be embedded in a person’s spine to do so. The accident helped me figure out what it needed to actually work, though.”

Daisy scoffed. “I wouldn’t call that an accident as much as a homocidal escape maneuver. Which reminds me, why would you work for Raina right after she nearly killed you so she could escape?”

“I didn’t have much of a choice. Once my advisors found out about this, they weren’t going to let me continue my normal studies,” Jemma said. 

Daisy nodded knowingly. “Hopefully, these tests that we’re running will tell you some more on how those things actually work and if they’re negatively affecting you in any way.”

“Maybe they’ll be able to figure out how to remove it.”

“Remove it?” Daisy balked. 

“Yes,” Jemma replied. “Do you think I’m planning on having a giant plant growing out of my back for the rest of my life? Especially, after the publicity it’s gotten me.”

Jemma gestured to the newspaper one of the lab techs had left out earlier. The front page featured a large picture of Quake and Jemma on the roof top last night, far enough away to not be able to see facial features, but close enough that it was obvious who they were. It was shot while they were mid-kiss, shortly after shutting down the machine and the headline reads _Superhero Girlfriends?:_ Quake _seduces former villain,_ Vine Girl, _to save city from mind-control plot._

The rest of the story was just as bad. 

Jemma noticed a slight blush creeping up Daisy’s cheeks. “I’d just like to know how they got that picture,” Daisy grumbled. 

“Maybe the spiders on the roof work for the paper.”

Daisy smirked. There was a momentary silence, then Daisy opened her mouth to say something, but another voice interrupted her. 

“Daisy, May requested that you meet her in the training room.”

The voice belonged to Coulson, the man from the Quinjet whom Jemma was also informed was the director of SHIELD. 

Daisy glanced towards Jemma and looked like she was about to protest, but eventually just nodded and slipped out of the lab. 

“How are you feeling, Miss Simmons?” Coulson asked. 

“Fine, now that I’m no longer being poked and scanned,” Jemma said, trying to keep the bitterness out of her voice. 

Coulson smiled gently. “Sorry about all that. It’s just protocol when dealing with powered people. We want to make sure we know where exactly everyone’s powers are coming from, in case there’s some kind of connection. You actually helped us uncover one such connection between Daisy and Raina.”

Jemma nodded. “Yes, the genetic component. But, my…power, I guess, isn’t genetic.”

“We know. There’s multiple ways that people we’ve encountered have come across their powers. Lab accidents are a surprisingly common one,” he replied. 

“Not surprising,” Jemma muttered. “Has your team made any progress on removing it?”

“Not yet, but I have some of my best people going over your tests. We’re confident that they’ll come up with something within a few days at most,” Coulson said. 

“Good.”

Coulson shuffled his feet awkwardly for a moment. “I also came in here to thank you.”

“Thank me?” Jemma frowned. She had done nothing worthy of thanks in months. In fact, quite the opposite. 

“I wanted to thank you for coming in. For a number of reasons really. First, because we’d rather have you on our team than working outside the law. And second, you being here has kept Daisy on base for the first time in months.”

“Really?”

Coulson nodded. “Lately, she’s been off on her own, acting more like a vigilante than an agent. She pretty much only calls us when there’s something big happening and once it’s solved, she disappears again. It’s been nice having her back on base.”

“Then, you’re welcome for being enough of a nuisance to get your team involved,” Jemma replied. 

Coulson smirked. “That wasn’t all I wanted to talk to you about, though. I know you’re pretty set on getting that growth removed, but if you’re at all interested in keeping it, you could be a valuable asset in the field. Or if you do chose to get it removed, we could still use your skills in the lab.”

Jemma blinked at him owlishly. “What?”

“I’m asking you to join SHIELD,” Coulson clarified. 

“Oh.”

Daisy chose that moment to reappear in the lab. 

“Hey, what are you guys talking about?” Daisy chirped. 

“Just the future,” Coulson said. “I’ll give you some time to think things over, Simmons.”

Daisy watched him leave before speaking up again. 

“So, what were you really talking about?” she asked Jemma. 

“Oh, just…things,” Jemma replied. She hopped down from the table. No one really told her where to go once her tests were done, so she guessed she would go back to her holding cell until her results came in. Or she would play with the equipment in here, if she could get away with it. 

“Did he offer you a job?” Daisy asked. 

Jemma smirked. “With or without my superpowers, apparently.”

Daisy looked impressed. “You think you’re gonna take it?”

“Not sure. It’s an intriguing offer. There’s at least interesting people to work with,” Jemma replied with a smirk. 

Daisy preened slightly. “Do you think you’re going to keep the superpower, though? We’d already have a cute field name,” Daisy said, waving the newspaper with _Superhero Girlfriends_ emblazoned across it. 

Jemma snorted. She felt her vines curling up her arms and around her waist and squeezing slightly, like they were giving her a hug. At first, she had wanted them gone as soon as possible, but now they almost felt like a permanent part of her body. She didn’t know if she could exist with or without them at this point. 

“I haven’t decided yet. But, I’d like to know more about what SHIELD is about,” Jemma said. 

Daisy held out an arm. “Then, allow me to show you around the base.”

Jemma smirked and looped her arm through Daisy’s. One of her vines slipped out of her sleeve and wove around their intwined arms as Daisy led her on a tour through the base. 

From what she had already seen, Jemma thought it seemed like a good group of people to work with. They were already working towards what Jemma had originally wanted to study for: making the world a better place. 

The pretty girl excitedly showing Jemma all the cool equipment they had and walking her through what seemed to be her home was merely a bonus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter guys!! Thanks so much for sticking with this story so long! It's been a super fun ride and I'm really glad people have stayed interested as I powered through this one. I really liked writing this story once I got through the exposition, so I'm glad I wasn't doing it just for myself haha. There will be a short epilogue at some point on this one so, there's a bit more of this verse for you guys!
> 
> Also, sorry for bit of a delay on this chapter. Moving halfway around the world alone for school is stressful af and I'm just now settling in enough not to be weepy constantly ^_^'' Hopefully I can crank out a few chapters on my other WIP before classes start!
> 
> Anyway, thanks again!


	14. Epilogue

“Daisy, he’s changed direction to northwest.”  
“Meaning?”

Jemma rolled her eyes. “Take a left. He’s following the road, which means watch out for civilians.”

“Coulson’s nearly got all the civilians evacuated,” Fitz informed Jemma from the station to her left. Fitz joined up about a week after Jemma officially accepted SHIELD’s offer. Despite him drooling over the equipment SHIELD had, he was a bit wary of signing up for another mysterious organization, though they won him over pretty quickly. “Daisy just needs to head him off before he hits our perimeter.”

“Working on it,” Daisy grumbled, through the comms. The whoosh of air accompanying her words told Jemma that Daisy was flying through the air, hopping from rooftop to rooftop. Of course, the GPS beacon pulsing on the screen in front of her could also tell her that. “This guy’s moving pretty fast.”

Jemma rubbed the base of her neck. It was still a bit sore from the procedure, but the doctors at SHIELD said she was healed enough. The scar left behind was still raised and tender, but it had only been a few weeks. “You’re only two blocks away from him Daisy.”

“Alright, I’m heading down. Any update on what this guy can do?”

Jemma tapped the keyboard to pull up the display of all the scanners they had pointed at this new powered person. Even the mobile equipment on the Zephyr was years ahead of anything Jemma had worked with before. Thankfully, she had a few weeks of practice on it before SHIELD sent her out to run backend on Daisy’s missions. 

The scanners popped up, but were all blank still. 

“Sorry, Daisy. We can’t get a solid read on him just yet. Be careful,” Jemma replied. 

“Okay, let’s hope it involves something cute and harmless.”

Jemma watched as the little dot on the screen that represented Daisy drifted off the rooftops and towards the dot representing their target. The target didn’t seem aggressive so far. He appeared to be someone who just discovered their powers and panicked. Jemma suspected he was a new Inhuman, but they wouldn’t be able to tell until they brought him in for testing. 

Jemma listened as Daisy introduced herself to the man and tried to explain SHIELD, while she waited for the scanners to lock onto the man. It seemed to be going well for awhile. 

Then, an earsplitting sound ripped through the comms. Everyone on the Zephyr cursed and covered their ears and Jemma frantically tried to turn the volume down. 

On the other end, Jemma could hear a metallic crash and Daisy cursing. 

“So, that’s what he does,” Daisy grumbled. 

“Daisy? Are you alright?” Jemma called. 

“I can’t hear a damn thing right now. I’m going back in.”

“Daisy, what’s happening? What is his power?”

Jemma watched the dot of their target go flying backwards nearly a block. It paused for a moment, before darting back towards Daisy. The earsplitting noise rang through the comms again. 

“Jesus. Okay, he…have some kind of superson…breath or something, I don’t know,” Daisy replied, after a pause. “Every…he opens his mouth, things go flying. Sort of…I do, but it’s only in his mouth and I…way cooler.”

“I think, your comms are broken, Daisy,” Jemma replied. “You should come back to the Zephyr and we can work out a plan.”

“Can’t….ear you. And…getting close…perimeter….don’t have time,” Was the broken reply. 

The noise tore through the Zephyr again. Jemma slammed the button to turn it off, to everyone’s relief. Daisy’s hearing was going to be destroyed if she kept going after this guy. 

Jemma mirrored all her displays over to Fitz’s monitor. “I’m going in.”

“Wait, what?”

“Comms are down, and Daisy has no way of stopping this man’s powers, other than to counter them with her own, and the combination of them is just going to lead to more destruction,” Jemma replied, shrugging off her SHIELD jacket. Luckily she was already suited up underneath it. 

She ran into the cockpit and grabbed the two sets of aviation headsets and darted back towards the hatch. 

“Do you really think you should be going out so soon after your procedure?” Fitz cautioned. 

“Bobbi said I was fine to go into the field. That means into the actual field, not just the plane,” Jemma replied, strapping on a parachute.

“She said technically you were fine, but she wouldn’t advise it.”

“She probably wouldn’t 'advise' a lot of the bad girl shenanigans I’ve gotten into over the past year, so one more can’t hurt.”

Fitz rolled his eyes, knowing he wouldn’t win this argument. Daisy needed help, so Jemma was going to jump out of a plane to help her. 

Jemma lowered the hatch on the plane and jumped. 

She hit the ground a few blocks from where she judged the battle to be and jogged towards the last place she had seen Daisy’s GPS dot. 

She didn’t have to wait long to find Daisy. A deafening roar shrieked through the air and a black-clad body flew across the alley Jemma was in and slammed into something. Jemma winced. 

Shortly after Daisy, the target strode across the alley in the direction he had just thrown Daisy. 

Jemma slipped on one of the pairs of aviator headsets and crept out of the alley. At least she had the element of surprise on her side. 

She ran up behind the man before he reached Daisy and her vines snapped into action. 

They tangled around his arms, his legs, and his neck. She made sure one wound around his jaw, holding his mouth shut. The man struggled violently as Jemma tried to tighten the vines and made her feel like she was tied to an angry bull. 

Eventually, the man managed to get ahold the vines on his neck and flipped Jemma over his shoulder, sending her flying into a pile of garbage bags. 

Which turned out to be the same place Daisy had been thrown. 

“Fancy meeting you here,” Daisy groaned underneath Jemma. 

The man turned and darted down an alleyway. 

Jemma glanced over Daisy (well, as much as she could see of her, since Jemma had landed on top of her). She was bruised and battered, but no more than normal after a fight. Since she was making jokes, Jemma guessed she didn’t have any serious injuries. 

“I don’t think 'fancy' is the word I would use in this situation.” Jemma pulled a clump of slimy noodles out of Daisy’s hair and then rolled off the garbage pile. 

“Any situation is fancy when your former-supervillain girlfriend jumps out of a plane to help you save the city,” Daisy smirked. “I’m glad you decided to keep the vines.”

“So am I,” Jemma replied with a smile. Once Bobbi Morse and the other SHIELD biologists figured out exactly how Jemma’s vines were growing into her back, they figured out a way to keep them attached, but remove the more dangerous parts from Jemma’s spine. If the base of it kept growing at the rate it had before, Jemma would probably only have had a few months before the spikes jabbed into her spine and completely paralyzed or killed her. Now, she could jump into the field and help Daisy when she needed to and not have to worry if a wrong move would cripple her. 

“I’m also here to save your hearing.” Jemma handed Daisy the other headset. 

“Aw, you brought me a present. How romantic,” Daisy replied. 

“You’re ridiculous,” Jemma said, with a grin. 

“I know.” Daisy winked and slipped on the headset. “We should probably go find that guy,” She shouted, now that her hearing was dampened. 

As Daisy headed in the direction the target had disappeared, Jemma wrapped a vine around her wrist and pulled her in for a kiss.

As soon as their lips met, Daisy melted against Jemma’s body. Jemma pulled her even closer and wound her arms around Daisy’s neck to deepen the kiss. Jemma’s vines coiled around Daisy’s waist, just as unwilling to let Daisy go as Jemma was. She noticed they liked to do that a lot. 

When they were both out of breath, they broke apart. Neither wanted to be the first to let go, but the distant police sirens pulled them back to the present. 

Jemma smiled. Through the strangest turn of events, she was the happiest she had ever been. She was able to fight for good from both the field and the lab and she had an amazing woman by her side to do it with. 

She unwound all her vines from Daisy and grabbed her hand. 

“Let’s go save the world.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's a wrap! Thanks again for tagging along on this ridiculous endeavor!   
> And as usual, feel free to head over to my tumblr and chat with me! (sad-trash-writing.tumblr.com)

**Author's Note:**

> So, instead of working on prompts I decided to finish up the first chapter of another multi-chapter fic. It'll be a fun one though, so I don't feel too bad about it.  
> Also, I'm taking some major liberties with the science/botany here, so if anyone actually knows anything about plants/genetics...I'm sorry.  
> Hit me up on tumblr and let me know what you think: sad-trash-writing


End file.
